LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALIFORNIA 
SANTA  CRUZ 


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»  IS.  J,'. 


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»*  HuUj 

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THE 


HISTORY 


OF  THE 


UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA, 


PROM    THE 


of  tl)e  Continent 


TO    THE 

ORGANIZATION    OF    GOVERNMENT    UNDER    THE 
FEDERAL    CONSTITUTION. 


BY  RICHARD  HILDRETH. 


IN     THREE     VOLUMES. 

VOL.    II. 


NEW    YORK: 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS,   PUBLISHERS. 
82   CLIFF    STREET. 

1849. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  forty-nine,  by 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  Southern  District 
of  New  York. 


E 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  SECOND  VOLUME. 


[A  complete  Analytical  Index  will  be  found  at  the  end  of  the  third  volume.] 


CHAPTER  XVI. 
SETTLEMENT  OF  CAROLINA. 

Page 

Grant  of  Carolana ;  Province  of  Carolina 25 

Charter  of  Carolina 26 

Settlement  at  Cape  Fear 26 

County  of  Albemarle 27 

County  of  Clarendon 28 

Second  Charter  ;  Bahamas  annexed  to  Carolina 28 

Laws  of  Albemarle  ;  Political  System  ;  Visit  of  Fox 29 

Locke's  Constitution  or  Grand  Model 29 

County  of  Carteret ;  Charleston  founded 33 

Administrations  of  West  and  Yearn ans ;  New  Charleston.  .  34 

Succession  of  Governors ;  Immigrants 36 

Disputes  with  the  Proprietaries ;  new  Division  into  Counties  37 

The  Buccaneers  ;  Collision  with  St.  Augustine 38 

Progress  of  Albemarle  or  North  Carolina 39 

Culpepper's  Insurrection  ;  Sothel  Governor. . .' ...  .  40 

Custom-house  at  Charleston ;  Quo  Warranto 42 

Turbulent  Administration  of  Colleton 42 

Insurrection  ;  Sothel  Governor  ;  Progress  of  Carolina 43 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

PROVINCES  OF  NEW  YORK,  NEW  JERSEY,  AND  PENNSYL- 
VANIA. 

Eastern  Boundary  of  New  York 44 

Code  of  Laws ;  City  Charter 44 

New  Jersey 51 

Proprietary  Concessions  ;  Governor  Carteret ;  Elizabethtown  5 1 


iv  CONTENTS. 

Page 

Indians ;  Rapid  Progress  of  the  Settlement 52 

First  Assembly ;  Trouble  about  Quit-rents  ;  Insurrection .  .  53 

Lovelace  Governor  of  New  York ;  Taxes 54 

The  Delaware  Settlements  ;  Newcastle 54 

Dutch  Reconquest ;  Retrocession 54 

New  Charter ;  Andros  Governor ;  Claim  against  Connecticut  55 

County  of  Cornwall ;  Counties  on  the  Delaware 56 

Duke's  County ;  Long  Island  ;  City  of  New  York 57 

Berkeley's  Share  of  New  Jersey  sold  to  Quakers 57 

Settlement  at  Salem ;  Partition  of  the  Jerseys 58 

West  Jersey  divided  into  a  hundred  Shares 59 

Burlington  founded  ;  Indian  Treaty 59 

East  Jersey ;  second  Assembly ;  Counties 59 

Claims  of  Andros  to  Jurisdiction  over  the  Jerseys 60 

Decision  against  the  Claim  ;  first  Assembly  of  West  Jersey  61 

Sale  of  East  Jersey  to  twenty-four  Proprietaries 61 

William  Penn  ;  Province  of  Pennsylvania 62 

Provisions  of  the  Charter;  Inhabitants;  Proclamations. ...  63 
Proposals  to  Colonists  ;  Company  of  Free  Traders  ;  Penn's 

Letter  to  the  Indians 64 

Proposed  Frame  of  Government  and  fundamental  Laws ...  64 

Purchase  of  the  Delaware  Counties 65 

Arrival  of  Penn ;  first  Assembly 66 

Act  of  Settlement ;  Act  of  Union ;  Great  Law 67 

Boundary  Dispute  with  Lord  Baltimore 69 

Penn's  Indian  Policy 72 

Philadelphia  founded;  second  and  third  Assemblies 73 

Pennsbury  Manor ;  Progress  of  the  Boundary  Dispute 73 

Provincial  Court ;  State  of  the  Province  at  Penn's  Departure  75 

Discontents  in  New  York ;  Legality  of  Taxes  questioned . .  76 

First  Assembly  of  New  York ;  Counties 76 

Boundary  Settlement  with  Connecticut 77 

Dongan's  Administration 77 

Albany  chartered ;   Livingston  Manor 77 

Presbyterian  Emigration  to  East  Jersey 77 

Penn's  Favor  with  James  II. ;  Decision  as  to  Boundaries.  .  78 

Violent  Proceedings  in  Pennsylvania ;  Penn's  Dissatisfaction  79 

Blackwell  Governor  ;  Printing  Press ;  High  School 80 


CONTENTS.  v 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

NEW  FRANCE.       THE  REGION  OF  THE  GREAT  LAKES  AND 
THE  MISSISSIPPI. 

Page 

Interior  little  known  to  the  English 81 

Champlain  ;  Recollect  Explorations 81 

Company  of  New  France  ;  Jesuits 82 

Missions  on  Lake  Toronto 82 

College,  Hospital,  and  Convent  at  Quebec 83 

Montreal ;   Falls  of  St.  Mary 83 

The  Iroquois ;  Jogues  and  Bressani 83 

Overland  Passage  from  Canada  to  the  Penobscot 84 

Character  of  the  French  Fur  Traders  and  Missionaries ....  84 

The  Iroquois;  their  Hostility  to  the  French 86 

Vain  Efforts  to  convert  them 87 

Destruction  of  the  Huron  Missions 87 

Danger  of  Canada;  Embassy  to  New  England 88 

New  Attempt  to  convert  the  Iroquois  ;  French  Settlement 

at  Oswego 88 

Montreal  founded  ;  Daughters  of  the  Congregation 89 

Canadian  Theocracy 89 

Conquests  of  the  Iroquois ;  Distress  of  New  France 90 

Canada  transferred  to  the  French  West  India  Company.  .  .  91 

Lake  Superior  explored 92 

Mission  of  St.  Mary  ;  Recollects  Return  to  Canada 92 

Lake  Michigan  explored  ;  Discovery  of  the  Mississippi ....  92 

Descent  of  the  River  ;  Return  by  the  Illinois 93 

Fewness  of  Indian  Inhabitants 94 

La  Salle  ;  Fort  Frontenac  ;  La  Salle's  Commission  for  ex- 
ploring the  Mississippi 95 

His  Voyage  to  Green  Bay 96 

Fort  of  the  Miamis  ;  Crevecoeur 96 

La  Salle  returns  by  Land  to  Frontenac 97 

Hennepin  explores  the  Upper  Mississippi 97 

La  Salle  descends  to  the  Gulf;  Louisiana 9? 

La  Salle  leads  a  Colony  to  the  Mouth  of  the  Mississippi ...  98 

Misses  the  River  and  lands  in  Texas 98 

Tonti ;  Death  of  La  Sa]le 98 


vi  CONTENTS. 

Page 

Disappearance  of  the  Colony  ;  Claims  founded  on  it 99 

Collision  of  Frontenac  with  the  Priests  ;  Fenelon 99 

Sale  of  Spirits  to  the  Indians 99 

Assembly  of  Notables :....: 100 

Conquests  by  the  Iroquois  ;  War  with  Canada  renewed  ...  100 

The  Iroquois  stimulated  by  the  Governor  of  New  York  ...  101 

Fruitless  Expedition  of  De  la  Barre 102 

Card  Money  ;  Denonville  invades  the  Seneca  Country.  ...  102 

Sack  of  Montreal 103 

Slow  Progress  of  Canada 103 

French  Explorations  as  compared  with  the  English 103 

Posts  and  Settlements  in  Acadie.  .  .104 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

ROYAL  PROVINCE  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  JAMES  II. 
REVOLUTION  IN  MARYLAND  AND  VIRGINIA.  DELA- 
WARE A  SEPARATE  PROVINCE. 

Kirk  Governor  of  Massachusetts 105 

Dudley  President  of  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire  .  .  105 

King's  Province  ;  Governors  of  Rhode  Island 106 

Dudley's  Administration 107 

Andros  Governor  of  New  England 108 

Absorption  of  Rhode  Island  and  Plymouth 109 

English  Liturgy  in   a  Boston  Meeting-house  ;    Episcopal 

Church  ;  Toleration  proclaimed 109 

Resistance  to  Taxes 110 

Connecticut  absorbed 110 

Grievances  of  Massachusetts Ill 

Mather  embarks  for  England 112 

Andros's  Expedition  to  Penobscot 112 

New  York  and  New  Jersey  annexed  to  New  England  ....  112 
Indian  War  at  the  Eastward ;  no  Thanksgiving  in  Massa- 
chusetts    112 

Revolution  in  England 113 

Insurrection  in  Massachusetts 113 

Plymouth,  Connecticut,  and  Rhode  Island  reassume  their 

old  Government.  .                                                               .  .  114 


CONTENTS.  vji 

Page 

Provisional  Government  in  Massachusetts 114 

William  and  Mary  proclaimed  in  Virginia 115 

Leisler's  Insurrection  at  New  York 116 

Coode's  Insurrection  in  Maryland 117 

Mather  in  England  ;  Uoyal  Circular  to  the  Colonies 118 

Fate  of  the  Massachusetts  Charter > 119 

Penn  out  of  Favor  and  in  Danger 121 

Delaware  a  separate  Province .  121 

CHAPTER  XX. 

ACCESSION  OF  WILLIAM    III.       COMMENCEMENT    OF    THE 
FIRST  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR. 

Effect  of  the  English  Revolution  on  the  Colonies 123 

Toleration  of  Protestants  ;   Catholic  Persecution 123 

Colonial  Policy  of  William  III.  and  his  Ministers 124 

Origin  of  the  first  Intercolonial  War 126 

Population  of  the   British   Colonies ;   Proposal  of  colonial 

Neutrality  rejected 127 

Projects  of  the  French  ;  Newfoundland 127 

War  with  the  Eastern  Indians 128 

Frontenac's  Arrival  in  Canada ...  • 129 

Destruction  of  Schenectady  ;  Albany  submits  to  Leisler.  .  .  130 

Destruction  of  Salmon  Falls  and  Casco 131 

Alarming  Features  of  the  War  ;  Hatred  of  Popery  inflamed  132 

Retaliations  ;  Colonial  Congress  at  New  York 133 

Sir  William  Phipps  ;  Capture  of  Port  Royal 133 

Failure  of  the  Expedition  against  Canada 135 

First  Issue  of  colonial  Bills  of  Credit 136 

Church's  Expedition  to  the  Androscoggin 136 

Progress  of  the  War;  New  England  Captives .  136 

Sloughter  Governor  of  New  York 138 

Trial  of  Leisler  and  Milbourne;  their  Execution 138 

Colonial  Constitution  of  New  York 140 

Further  Successes  of  the  French  and  Indians 141 

Plymouth,  Maine,  and  Sagadahoc  included  in  Massachusetts  141 

New  Hampshire  a  separate  Province 142 

Provisions  of  the  new  Charter  of  Massachusetts •  142 


CONTENTS. 

ft* 

Nomination  of  Officers  by  Increase  Mather 144 

State  of  the  Colony  at  Phipps's  Arrival 144 

Opinions  on  the  Subject  of  Witchcraft 145 

Laws  for  its  Punishment 146 

Increase  Mather's  Remarkable  Providences 146 

Witchcraft  at  Newbury 147 

Controversy  as  to  the  Reality  of  Witchcraft 147 

Witchcraft  in  Boston . 148 

Cotton  Mather  ;  his  Memorable  Providences 149 

Attestation  of  the  Boston  Ministers 150 

Cotton  Mather's  Sermon;  Responsibility  in  this  Matter.  .  .  15] 

Witchcraft  at  Salem  Village 152 

Examinations  at  Salem  Village 153 

Confessing  Witches  ;  Witchcraft  in  Andover 155 

Special  Court  for  the  Trial  of  the  Witches 156 

First  General  Court  under  the  new  Charter 157 

Advice  of  the  Elders 157 

Second  Session  of  the  Special  Court ;  Rebecca  Nurse 158 

Third  Session  of  the  Special  Court ;  Procter,  Willard,  and 

Burroughs 159 

Fourth  and  fifth  Sessions  of  the  Special  Court 160 

Wonders  of  the  Invisible  World 160 

Defense  against  the  Eastern  Indians 161 

Progress  of  Accusations ;  Reaction 161 

Second   Session  of  the  General  Court ;    Andover  Remon- 
strance ;  Superior  Court  organized 162 

Trials  before  the  Superior  Court ;  Confessions  retracted  ...  163 

Cases  of  Conscience  concerning  Witchcraft 164 

Royal  Veto  on  the  capital  Punishment  of  Witchcraft,  Her- 
esy, and  Blasphemy 164 

Calef  attacks  the  Reality  of  Witchcraft 165 

Harvard  College  Circular 165 

Persistence  in  the  Belief  in  Witchcraft 165 

Yellow  Fever  in  Boston  ;  Peace  with  the  Eastern  Indians.  167 

Legislation  of  Massachusetts  ;  Established  Church 167 

Ministers  of  New  England 168 

Sunday  Laws;  Adultery  ;  Atheism  and  Blasphemy 169 

Judiciary  System 170 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

PROGRESS  AND  CONCLUSION  OF  THE  FIRST  INTERCO- 
LONIAL WAR.  BOARD  OF  TRADE  AND  PLANTATIONS. 
ENFORCEMENT  OF  RESTRICTIONS  ON  COLONIAL  COM- 
MERCE. 

Page 

Quaker  Schism  in  Pennsylvania 171 

Penn  and  Baltimore  deprived  of  their  Governments 172 

Change  of  System  in  Maryland  ;  Church  of  England 172 

Result  of  the  Complaints  against  Effingham 173 

Nicholson  in  Virginia  ;  Commissary  Blair 173 

College  of  William  and  Mary  in  Virginia 174 

Linen  and  Leather;  Colonial  Treasurer 175 

Act  against  Swearing,  Sabhath  abusing,  Drunkenness,  &c.  176 

Additions  to  the  Slave  Code 177 

Defense  of  the  Frontiers 179 

Indian  Trade  ;  Slavery  of  Indians 180 

Andros  Governor  of  Virginia;  Neale's  colonial  Post-office.  .  181 

Ministers'  Salaries ;  Parishes 182 

Nicholson  in  Maryland  ;  Annapolis  ;  Free  Schools 182 

Fletcher  Governor  of  New  York ;  Mohawk  Country  invaded 

from  Canada 182 

Fletcher  in  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware 183 

His  Claim  to  command  the  Connecticut  Militia 184 

Phipps  recalled 184 

Massachusetts  Representatives  required  to  be  resident 1 84 

Dudley  seeks  the  Government  of  Massachusetts  ;  Reversal 

of  Leisler's  Attainder •% 185 

Stoughton's  Administration  in  Massachusetts 185 

Defense  of  New  York 186 

Fletcher's  second  Visit  to  Pennsylvania 186 

The  Government  restored  to  Penn;  new  Act  of  Settlement  186 

Renewal  of  the  War  with  the  Eastern  Indians 187 

Aid  to  New  York  from  Virginia  and  Maryland 187 

Churches  in  New  York  ;  Fletcher's  Speech 187 

Religion  and  Morals  in  New  York ,  .  189 

Concluding  Operations  of  the  War  ;  Five  Nations  invaded 

from  Canada 4 193 


x  CONTENTS. 

?<•«<• 

Exploits  of  D'Ibberville 193 

Ruin  of  the  Eastern  Settlements  ;  Retaliation  by  Church.  194 

Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut  .>.... 194 

Haverhill  again  attacked  ;  Hannah  Dustin 195 

Threatened  Attack  on  Boston 195 

Peace  of  Ryswick ;  Peace  with  the  Eastern  Indians 196 

Board  of  Trade  and  Plantations 196 

Re-enforcement  of  the  Acts  of  Trade 197 

Plans  for  colonial  Co-operation 198 

Courts  of  Vice  Admiralty  ;  Appeals 198 

Pirates  ;  Captain  Kidd 199 

Bellamont  Governor  of  New  York  ;  Leislerians  in  Power .  .  200 

Court  of  Chancery  in  New  York 201 

Bellamont  Governor  of  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire  201 

Opposition  to  the  Acts  of  Trade 202 

Kidd's  Arrest ;  Act  of  Parliament  for  the  Trial  of  Piracies  203 

Bellamont's  Death 203 

Violence  of  the  Leislerians 204 

Penn's  second  Visit  to  Pennsylvania 205 

Charter  pf  Privileges  ;  Charter  of  Philadelphia 206 

James  Logan 207 

Affairs  of  the  Jerseys 207 

Nicholson  Governor  of  Virginia  ;  Williamsburg 208 

Toleration  in  Virginia  ;  Punishment  of  Blasphemy 209 

Affairs  of  the  Carolinas  ;  Grand  Model  abrogated 210 

Archdale's  Administration  in  Carolina 211 

Blake  Governor;  New  England  Immigrants;  Churches  .  .  212 

Cultivation  of  Rice ? 213 

North  Carolina  ;  Settlements  on  the  Pamlico 213 

Colonial  Trade  ;  Plantation  Duties  ;  Manufactures 213 

Slave  Trade  ;  English  Law 214 

Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel «...  214 

Attack  on  the  chartered  Colonies 215 

New  Jersey  a  Royal  Province;  its  Constitution  as  such.  .  .  216 

Chief-justice  Mompesson 218 

Dudley  Governor  of  .Massachusetts 218 


CONTENTS.  • 

-V  1 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

SETTLEMENT  OF    LOUISIANA.       REIGN  OF   QUEEN    ANNE. 
SECOND  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.       PIRACY  SUPPRESSED. 

Page 

D'Ibberville  leads  a  Colony  to  Louisiana 220 

Pensacola  occupied  by  the  Spaniards 220 

The  Mississippi  entered  from  the  Gulf;  Explorations 221 

Settlement  at  Beloxi ;  Spanish  Remonstrance 221 

English  Rivalry ;  Huguenot  Immigrants  refused 222 

Posts  on  the  Mississippi ;  continued  Explorations 223 

Feebleness  of  the  Colony ;  Mobile 224 

French  Claims  on  the  Northeast ;  Peace  with  the  Iroquois .    225 

Detroit ;  Kaskaskia  ;  Cahokia 226 

Protestant  and  Catholic  Missions ;  anti-Catholic  Laws  in 

Massachusetts  and  New  York / 226 

Second  Intercolonial  War 227 

Florida  ;  the  Creeks  ;  the  Cherokees 228 

The  Yamassees,  Catawbas,  and  Tuscaroras 228 

Moore  Governor  of  South  Carolina;  Expedition  against  St. 

Augustine 228 

Dissenters  disfranchised  ;  Church  of  England  established.  .    229 

Destruction  of  the  Appalachees 230 

Charleston  attacked  ;  Death  of  D'Ibberville 231 

Rights  of  the  Dissenters  vindicated  ;  Church  Establishment  231 

Rice  an  enumerated  Article ' 232 

Gibbs  and  Broughton;  Craven  Governor 232 

North  Carolina 233 

Oligarchy  in  Virginia ;  Office  of  Governor  a  Sinecure 233 

Fifth  Code ;  Laws  relating  to  Slaves  and  Servants 235 

Burgesses  ;  Land  Laws - 238 

Spotswood  Lieutenant  Governor 240 

Persecution  of  Catholics  in  Maryland  ;  Seymour's  Admin- 
istration      240 

Final  Separation  of  Delaware  and  Pennsylvania 242 

Discontents  in  Pennsylvania  ;  Lloyd's  Memorial 242 

New  Disputes  ;  Proprietary  Negotiation 243 

Gookin  Governor  ;  Attack  on  Logan 245 

Perm's  Contract  for  ceding  the  Sovereignty  to  the  Crown .  .   246 


xii  CONTENTS. 

Page 

Cornbury  Governor  of  New  York ;  Defense  of  that  Province  246 

Neutrality  of  the  Five  Nations 247 

Colonial  Treasurer ;  Queen's  Gift  to  Trinity  Church 247 

Dissenting  Ministers  prosecuted ;  Cornbury  in  New  Jersey .    248 

Cornbury's  Removal ;  Lovelace  ;  Ingolsby 249 

Dudley  in  Massachusetts  ;  Latitudinarianism 249 

Dudley's  Unpopularity  ;  his  Son  Paul 250 

New  Hampshire;  Maine;  War  with  the  Eastern  Indians.   251 

Villages  of  Becancour  and  St.  Francis '. 252 

Destruction  of  Deerfield;  Character  of  the  War 252 

Church's  Expedition  against  Acadie ; 253 

Truce ;  Exchange  of  Prisoners 253 

Charges  of  Trade  with  the  Enemy ;  Major  Schuyler 253 

Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  ;  Yale  College 254 

Hostility  of  Dudley  and- Cornbury  to  those  Colonies. 255 

Innovations  in  Connecticut ;  Saybrook  Platform  ;  Judiciary  255 

Boundary  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut 256 

Mohegan  Law-suit 256 

Town  of  Newport ; 257 

Parliamentary  Bounty  on  Naval  Stores 257 

Regulation  of  the  colonial  Currency  ;  Impressments 257 

Renewal  of  the  War  with  New  France 258 

Expedition  against  Port  Royal 258 

Haverhill  attacked  ;  Appeal  to  the  Queen 259 

Proposed  Expedition  against  Canada  ;  Co-operation 260 

Backwardness  of  Pennsylvania  ;  Plan  of  Campaign 260 

Failure  ;  Mission  to  England  ;  Mohawks 261 

Capture  of  Port  Royal • .   262 

British  Post-office  System  extended  to  America 262 

Hunter  in  New  York  ;  German  Immigrants 263 

Contests  with  the  Assembly  ;  annual  Grants 264 

Dummer's  Memorial;  new  Expedition  against  Canada.  .  .  .    265 

Efforts  of  the  Northern  Colonies 265 

Failure  of  the  Expedition  ;  Negro  Plot  in  New  York 266 

Disturbances  in  North  Carolina 267 

Tuscarora  War - 268 

Indian  Slaves  in  Pennsylvania  and  Massachusetts 270 

Slave  Code  of  South  Carolina 271 


CONTENTS. 

Page 

Peace  of  Utrecht ;  Nova  Scotia ;  Peace  with  the  Eastern 

Indians 276 

Indian  War  in  South  Carolina 276 

Population  of  the  Colonies * .  277 

Revival  of  Piracy  ;  its  final  Suppression  .  . . 278 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

PROGRESS  OF  LOUISIANA.   REIGN  OF  GEORGE  I.   PAPER 
MONEY  SCHEMES. 

Grant  of  Louisiana  to  Crozat 280 

New  Posts  ;  Attempts  at  Mexican  Trade 280 

Company  of  the  West,  or  Mississippi  Company 281 

New  Orleans  founded  ;  Spanish  Posts  in  Texas 281 

Stop  to  Immigration ;  Condition  of  the  Colony 282 

Ecclesiastical  System ;  civil  Constitution  ;  Products 283 

House  of  Hanover ;  reduced  Powers  of  the  Board  of  Trade .  284 

Jealousy  of  the  chartered  Colonies 284 

Election  Act  in  South  Carolina;  Indian  Lands 285 

Paper  Money  ;  Collision  with  the  Proprietaries. 285 

Johnson  Governor  ;  Impeachment  of  Trott 286 

The  Proprietary  Authority  resisted  and  renounced 287 

New  Attack  on  colonial  Charters 288 

Nicholson  royal  Governor  of  South  Carolina 289 

Independent  Company  ;  Treaties  with  the  Indians 289 

Paper  Money  ;  violent  Proceedings  of  the  Assembly 290 

North  Carolina  ;  earliest  extant  Laws 292 

Nature  of  the  Paper  Money  System 293 

Paper  Money  Loan  in  Massachusetts 294 

Burgess  and  Shute  Governors  of  Massachusetts 295 

More  Paper  Money  ;  Rhode  Island  Bank 296 

Pine-trees  ;  Liberty  of  the  Press  in  Massachusetts 297 

Governor's  Right  to  reject  the  Speaker  questioned 298 

Difficulties  on  the  Eastern  Frontier 299 

Progress  of  the  Dispute  with  the  Governor 299 

Inoculation  in  Boston 300 

Expedition  against  Norridgewock ;  Indian  War 302 

Departure  of  Shute  ;  Accommodation  with  Dummer 302 


CONTENTS. 

Page 

Connecticut ;  the  Mohawks  ;  first  Lodgment  in  Vermont .  .  303 

Destruction  of  Norridgewock  ;  Lovewell's  Fight 303 

Embassy  to  Canada  ;  Peace 304 

First  free  Press  in  America 304 

Change  in  the  Spirit  of  New  England 306 

Mather's  Sermon  at  a  Baptist  Ordination 306 

Growth  of  Episcopacy  in  New  England 307 

Yale  College ;  Lapse  of  Rector  Cutler 307 

Checkley's  Trial ;  proposed  Synod 308 

Concessions  to  Dissenters  ;  Growth  of  Latitudinarianism .  .  309 

Result  of  Shute's  Complaints .> ' 311 

Affairs  of  New  Hampshire  ;  new  Townships 311 

Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island 312 

New  York  and  New  Jersey  ;  Jameson  and  Coxe 315 

Burnet  Governor  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey 316 

Struggle  with  the  French  for  the  Western  Fur  Trade 317 

Burnet's  domestic  Administration 318 

Pennsylvania  ;  Gookin's  Removal  . . .  . 320 

Death  of  Perm;  Keith's  Administration  ;  Paper  Money.  ..  320 

Gordon  Governor;  Keith  in  the  Assembly 321 

Government  of  Maryland  restored  to  the  Proprietaries  ....  $22 

Proprietary  Constitution ;  Slave  Code  . 322 

Act  against  Blasphemy f 324 

State  of  the  Province  ;  County  Schools  ;  Prohibitory  Laws  324 

Spotswood  in  Virginia  ;  Struggles  for  Power * 326 

Drysdale  Governor  ;  Duty  on  Negroes  ;  Slave  Laws 328 

Exports  from  England  to  the  Colonies 329 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

DESIGNS  AND  PROGRESS  OF  THE  FRENCH.     FIRST  TWELVE 
YEARS  OF  GEORGE  II.       SETTLEMENT  OF  GEORGIA. 

State  of  New  France 330 

The  Choctaws  ;  the  Natchez 332 

The  Chickasaws  ;  War  with  the  Natchez 332 

English  Treaty  with  the  Cherokees 333 

Crown  Point  occupied  by  the  French 333 

Intervening  Wilderness  between  the  French  and  English .  .  334 


CONTENTS.  xv 

Page 

Chickasaws  hostile  to  the  French 334 

Louisiana  resigned  to  the  Crown  ;  Chickasaw  War 335 

Purchase  of  Carolina 336 

Johnson's  Administration  in  South  Carolina 337 

Broughton  Lieutenant  Governor;  Paper  Money 338 

North  Carolina  ;  Burrington  Governor 339 

Johnston's  Administration  ;  Quit-rents 340 

Gouch  Governor  of  Virginia 340 

Maryland  ;  Paper  Money  ;  Pennsylvania  Boundary 341 

Pennsylvania  Paper  Money  ;  Visit  of  the  Proprietaries.  .  .  .  342 

Increase  of  Population  ;  Catholic  Church  ;  Religious  Sects  343 

County  of  Lancaster  ;  Products  ;  Lands  ;  Legislation  ....  344 

Logan  President *. 345 

Burnet  in  Massachusetts ;  Salary  Controversy 345 

Additional  Matters  of  Controversy  ;  Burnet's  Death 347 

Connecticut  Law  of  Inheritance . .  348 

Berkeley  in  Rhode  Island  ;  State  of  that  Province 348 

Smibert  the  Artist .• 350 

Belcher  Governor  of  Massachusetts ;  new  Counties 350 

Stoppage  of  Supplies 351 

Complaints  against  the  Colonies ;  Report  of  the  Board  of 

Trade 351 

Instructions  to  the  Governors  ;  Acts  of  Parliament 352 

Massachusetts  Petition  ;  Appeal  to  Parliament 353 

New  Paper  Money  Issues 354 

New  Hampshire 354 

Boundary  Controversy  ;  Character  of  Belcher 355 

Trade  with  the  French  Sugar  Islands  ;  New  England  Rum  356 

Molasses  Act 356 

Montgomery  Governor  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey .....  357 

Cosby  Governor  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey 358 

Zenger's  Trial  for  Libel 359 

Clarke  succeeds  Cosby 360 

Paper  Money  Loan  ;  Jews  disfranchised 361 

New  Jersey ;  Morris  appointed  Governor.  . 361 

New  Colony  proposed  ;  Charter  of  Georgia 362 

Prospects  and  Promises  ;  mistaken  Selection  of  Colonists  .  .  364 

First  Colony  ;  Savannah  founded 365 

• 


xvi  CONTENTS. 

Page 

Additional  Immigrants ;  Jews  ;  Salzburgers 366 

Oglethorpe  returns  to  England  ;  Moravians .- 367 

Grants  of  Land  ;  Rum  and  Slaves  prohibited 368 

New  Inverness  ;  Frederica  ;  Augusta 368 

The  Wesleys  in  Georgia 369 

Complaints  of  the  English  Settlers;  their  Character 371 

Settlement  of  Boundaries  between  New  Hampshire  and 

Massachusetts 371 

Eastern  Boundary  of  Rhode  Island 373 

Naturalization  Act  of  Parliament 373 

Growth  of  the  Colonies 373 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

GREAT  BRITAIN  ATTACKS  THE  SPANISH  COLONIAL  SYS- 
TEM. THIRD  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  GREAT  REVIVAL, 
SLAVERY  AND  THE  SLAVE  TRADE. 

Spanish  colonial  Policy 374 

Illicit  Trade  with  the  Spanish  Colonies 374 

South  Carolina  Runaways 375 

Oglethorpe  returns  with  a  Regiment  . . . 375 

Walpole  forced  into  a  War 376 

Treaty  with  the  Creeks ;  Expedition  against  St.  Augustine  376 

Fire  at  Charleston ;  Calumnies  against  Oglethorpe 377 

Expedition  to  the  West  Indies  ;  colonial  Quotas  . . .  i* 377 

Controversy  in  Pennsylvania *.  .   378 

Banking  Projects  in  Massachusetts;  Belcher  recalled 379 

Banks  wound  up  ;  Samuel  Adams 380 

Shirley  Governor  of  Massachusetts 381 

Wentworth  Governor  of  New  Hampshire 382 

Failure  of  Vernon's  Expedition 382 

Serious  Character  of  the  War  ;  approaching  Hostilities  with 

France 382 

Spanish  Attack  on  Georgia 383 

Glen  Governor  of  South  Carolina 383 

Independent  Companies  ;  illicit  Trade 384 

Complaints  against  the  Trustees  of  Georgia  ... 384 

Oglethorpe  leaves  Georgia  ;  Stevens  President 385 


CONTENTS. 


Whitfield's  Orphan  House  ..........  ,  ........  -  ........  385 

Great  Revival  ;  New  Lights  ..............  .  .........  386 

Persecution  of  the  New  Lights  in  Connecticut  ...........  387 

Baptists;  Presbyterians  ;  Revival  System  ........  ......  388 

New  Missions  to  the  Indians  .............  -.  ......  .....  389 

Lutherans  ;  Religious  Revival  in  Great  Britain  .  .  .......  389 

Triumph  of  Faith  over  Learning  .....................  390 

Decline  in  the  historical  Importance  of  Religion  .........  390 

Bloody  Delusion  in  New  York  .......  .'  ...............  391 

Clarke  and  the  Assembly  ............................  392 

Clinton  Governor  of  New  York.  .  .  .  .  .  .................  393 

Collision  and  Treaty  with  the  Six  Nations  .....  .........  394 

War  with  France  ;  Capture  of  Louisburg  ..............  394 

Hoosick  and  Saratoga  ;  projected  Invasion  of  Canada  .....  398 

Johnson  Agent  for  the  Six  Nations  .......  .............  399 

Threatened  Invasion  of  New  England  .................  400 

Press  Riot  at  Boston  .....  .........................  .  401 

Four  Massachusetts  Towns  annex  themselves  to  Connecticut  402 

Volunteer  Militia  in  Pennsylvania  .............  .  ......  403 

Peace  of  Aix  la  Chapelle  .  ...........................  404 

Massachusetts  Paper  Money  ;  Thomas  Hutchinson  .......  404 

Paper  Money  redeemed  ;  Governors  of  Rhode  Island  .....  406 

Act  to  regulate  the  New  England  Currency  ...........  .  .  406 

Theatricals  in  America  .............................  407 

Governor  Wentworth  ;  New  Hampshire  Grants  .........  407 

Population  of  New  York  ;  King's  College  ......  -.  .......  408 

New  Jersey;  Elizabethtown  Claimants  ............  ....  410 

Belcher  Governor  ;  College  at  Princeton  .............  ..  411 

Affairs  of  Pennsylvania  ;  Hamilton  Governor  ...........  412 

Benjamin  Franklin  ;  American  Science  .  ...............  412 

Maryland  ;  projected  Emigration  of  Catholics  ...........  413 

Virginia  ;  Sixth  Revisal  of  Laws  .....................  414 

Johnston  in  North  Carolina  ..........................  41  o 

Indigo  ;  Wealth  of  South  Carolina  ....................  416 

Slow  Progress  of  Qeorgia  ;  Slavery  introduced  ..........  417 

Slavery  in  the  Colonies  generally  .....................  418 

Slave  Codes  of  the^  Carolinas  .  .  .  :  .............  ........  421 

Slave  Laws  in  Virginia  .  4  .  .  .  .  .......................  423 

II.—  B 


xviii  CON 

Page 

Imported  and  Creole  Negroes  .  .  . 424 

Law  of  England  on  the  Subject  of  Slavery 426 

Slave  Trade 427 

Redemptioners  ;  free  Negroes 428 

Amalgamation 429 

Political  Progress  of  the  Colonies / 430 

Illicit  Trade  ;  colonial  Iron. ' 430 

Commerce  of  the  Colonies :..... 43 1 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE  FINAL  STRUGGLE  BETWEEN 
THE  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  FOR  THE  COUNTRY  ON 
THE  GREAT  LAKES  AND  THE  MISSISSIPPI.  FOURTH 
INTERCOLONIAL  WAR. 

Passage  of  the  Cumberland  Mountains 433 

Ohio  Company ;  conflicting  Claims 433 

Halifax  founded 435 

Boundary  Commission  ;  French  Invasion  of  Nova  Scotia  .  .   436 

Movements  of  the  French  on  the  Western  Frontier 436 

Counteracting  Steps ;  Dinwiddie  ;  Washington 437 

Dinwiddie's  Quarrel  with  the  Assembly ;  Peyton  Randolph  436 

Attempt  to  occupy  the  Head  of  the  Ohio 439 

Political  Controversies  in  Pennsylvania  and  New  York. ...    439 

Maryland  ;  North  Carolina  Regiment 440 

Virginia  Regiment  repulsed  by  the  French 441 

Albany  Convention 442 

Plan  of  Union  ., 442 

Susquehanna  Company 444 

Cession  to  Pennsylvania ;  Growth  of  that  Province 445 

Shirley  in  Massachusetts;  Indian  War , 446 

Sharpe  Commander-in-chief ;  Virginia  Troops 446 

Maps ;  Population  and  Extent  of  the  rival  Colonies 447 

Preparations  for  War;  Braddock  Commander-in-chief. ....   447 

Plan  of  Campaign 448 

Contributions  of  Massachusetts ;  Rum  Tax 449 

New  Hampshire,  Connecticut,  and  Rhode  Island 450 

New  York  and  New  Jersey 450 


CONTENTS. 

Page 

Controversy  about  Supplies  in  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland  451 

Virginia  ;  first  Paper  Money 452 

North  Carolina ;  Dobbs  and  Starkie 452 

South  Carolina;  Georgia  a  Royal  Province. 453 

Attempt  to  intercept  a  French  Fleet '. 455 

Reprisals  and  Recriminations 455 

Expedition  up  the  Bay  of  Fundy .  .  456 

The  French  Neutrals  ;  their  Expatriation 457 

Braddock's  Expedition  and  Defeat 459 

Shirley's  Advance  to  Oswego 461 

Exertions  of  New  York ;  Hardy  Governor 462 

Crown  Point  Expedition  ;  Battle  of  Lake  George 462 

Ruggles  and  Putnam ».. ." 463 

Ticonderoga  and  Fort  George 464 

Niagara  Expedition  abandoned 464 

Indian  Hostilities  on  the  Western  Frontier 464 

End  of  the  Quaker  Rule  in  Pennsylvania 466 

Plan  for  the  Campaign  of  1756  ;  Shirley's  Recall 467 

Pennsylvania  Militia  ;  Franklin  a  Colonel > 467 

Fort  Frederic  ;  the  Virginia  Frontier 467 

Royal  Americans;  Declarations  of  War 468 

Preparations  in  America;  Loudon  Commander-in-chief.  . .  .  469 

Oswego  taken  by  the  French  .  .  .f.  , .  -» 470 

Winter  Quarters  ;  boundary  Riots 470 

War  with  the  Delawares;  pacific  Efforts  of  the  Quakers.  .  471 
Relation  with  the  Cherokees  ;    Forts  Prince  George   and 

Loudon 472 

Defense  of  South  Carolina : . 473 

Plan  of  Campaign  for  1757 473 

Defense  of  Pennsylvania  ;  Franklin  sent  to  England 473 

Fruitless  Expedition  against  Louisburg 474 

Pownall  Governor  of  Massachusetts 474 

Fort  William  Henry  taken  by  the  French 475 

Politics  of  Massachusetts  ;  New  Jersey 476 

Disputes  with  Loudon  as  to  the  Mutiny  Act 476 

Affairs  of  Georgia , .  . 477 

Progress  of  the  War  thus  far 478 


xx  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 

PROGRESS  AND  CONCLUSION  OF  THE  FOURTH  INTERCO- 
LONIAL WAR.  ACCESSION  OF  GEORGE  III.  THE  EN- 
GLISH MASTERS  OF  THE  CONTINENT  NORTH  OF  THE 
GULF  OF  MEXICO  AND  EAST  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI. 
LOCAL  AFFAIRS.  PROGRESS  OF  THE  COLONIES. 

Page 

Pitt  Minister  ;  Efforts  of  the  Colonists 480 

Great  military  Force;  Capture  of  Louisburg 481 

Repulse  at  Ticonderoga  ;  Charles  Lee. . .  : 482 

Capture  of  Fort  Frontenac 483 

Capture  of  Fort  Du  Quesne 484 

Peace  with  the  Western  Indians 485 

Fort  Pownall ;  the  Penobscot  occupied  by  the  English ....   485 

Denny  yields  to  the  Pennsylvania  Assembly 485 

Capture  of  Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point 486 

Expedition  against  the  St.  Francis  Indians.,. 486 

Capture  of  Niagara  . 487 

Siege  of  Quebec 488 

Battle  on  the  Heights  of  Abraham 489 

Surrender  of  Quebec 491 

Cherokee  War  ;  Lieutenant-governor  Bull 491 

Virginia  Duty  on  Slaves  imported 493 

Pennsylvania  Tax  on  the  proprietary  Estates 494 

Battle  of  Sillery  ;  the  French  retire  again  to  Montreal.  .  .  .   495 

Capture  of  Montreal ;  Conquest  of  Canada  complete 495 

New  York  ;   Lieutenant-governor  Golden 496 

End  of  the  New  England  Indian  Wars ;  the  Penobscots .  .  .    496 

Progress  and  Conclusion  of  the  Cherokee  War 497 

Quotas  for  1761  ;  Canadian  Paper  Money 497 

Bernard  Governor  of  Massachusetts ;  illicit  Trade 498 

Hutchinson  Chief-justice  ;  Writs  of  Assistance  ;  James  Otis  498- 

British  Successes  in  the  West  Indies 500 

Pitt  resigns  ;  War  with  Spain ;   India 501 

Louisiana,  West  of  the  Mississippi,  ceded  to  Spain £02 

Treaty  of  Fontainebleau  ;  Cessions  to  the  English 502 

East  Florida  ;  West  Florida ;  Quebec 502 

Public  Lands ;  military  Grants 503 


CONTENTS.  xxj 

Page 

New  Indian  War  on  the  Western  Frontier 504 

The  Paxton  Mob 5.04 

Progress  and  Termination  of  the  Indian  War 506 

Pennsylvania  applies  for  a  royal  Government 507 

Paper  Money  Restraining  Act ". 5Q8 

The  Parsons'  Case  in  Virginia ;  Patrick  Henry 508 

New  Settlements  in  New  England;  Vermont 509 

New  Settlements  in  the  Middle  and  Southern  Colonies  ...    510 

Georgia  ;  East  and  West  Florida 511 

Louisiana  ;  St.  Louis  founded , 511 

Progress  of  the  old  Colonies;  Arts  and  Learning 512 

The  legal  Profession..  .513 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 
GRENVILLE'S  SCHEME  OF  COLONIAL  TAXATION.    PASSAGE 

AND  REPEAL  OF  THE  STAMP  ACT. 

Expenses  and  Effects  of  the  late  War 514 

New  Designs  of  the  British  Ministry 515 

Authority  of  Parliament .  517 

Taxes  proposed  by  Grenville 518 

Reception  of  this  Scheme  in  America 519 

Right  to  tax  the  Colonies  claimed  by  Parliament 520 

Passage  of  the  Sugar  Act 520 

Boston  Instructions;  Proceedings  of  the  General  Court.  ...  521 

Otis's  Pamphlet  on  the  Rights  of  the  Colonies 522 

Other  Pamphlets  ;  Instructions  to  Franklin 523 

Massachusetts  Petition 523 

Connecticut,  New  York,  and  Rhode  Island 523 

Virginia  Petition 524 

Passage  of  the  Stamp  Act ;  Barre's  Speech. 524 

Quartering  Act ...  525 

E  eception  of  these  Acts  in  Virginia ;  Henry's  Resolutions .  .  525 

Massachusetts  proposes  a  Congress r 526 

Stamp  Officers  ;  Riots  in  Boston 527 

Sons  of  Liberty 528 

Meeting  and  Proceedings  of  the  Stamp  Act  Congress 529 

Riots  in  New  York  .  ...  531 


xxii  CONTENTS. 

Pa«e 

Non-importation  and  Non-consumption  Agreement 532 

Nullification  of  the  Stamp  Act 532 

Change  of  Ministry ;  State  of  Parties  in  England 533 

Pitt  denounces  the  Stamp  Act ;  Parliamentary  Debates .  . .  534 

Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act / 535 

Declaratory  Act ;  Lord  Camden /X  536 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

TOWNSHEND'S  SCHEME  OF  COLONIAL  TAXATION.  REPEAL 
OF  THE  NEW  TAXES  EXCEPT  THAT  ON  TEA.*  LOCAL 
AFFAIRS.  TERRITORIAL  CONTROVERSIES.  FIRST  SET- 
TLEMENTS IN  TENNESSEE.  KENTUCKY  EXPLORED. 

Gratitude  of  America  ;  Indemnities ' 537 

Modifications  of  the  Sugar  Act 537 

Ministry  of  the  Earl  of  Chatham. 538 

Townshend's  Scheme  of  Colonial  Taxation 538 

Colonial  Revenue  Commissioners  ;  Pownall's  Views 539 

New  York  Suspending  Act. '. 540 

Dickinson's  Farmer's  Letters 540 

Non-importation  Agreement  renewed 541 

Massachusetts  Circular  Letter 541 

Thomas  Gushing;  Samuel  Adams;  John  Hancock 542 

Joseph  Hawley ;  James  Bowdoin 543 

Seizure  of  the  Sloop  Liberty ;  Riot  in  Boston  ...........  544 

Refusal  to  rescind  the  Circular  Letter  . 544 

Its  Reception  in  other  Colonies;  Assemblies  dissolved.  ....  545 

New  York  ;  Livingston,  Clinton,  and  Schuyler 545 

Massachusetts  Convention 546 

British  Troops  in  Boston ;  Difficulty  about  Quarters 547 

Proceedings  of  Parliament  ...'...• 548 

Bernard's  Letters 549 

Thomas  Jefferson ;  Proceedings  in  Virginia 549 

Massachusetts  refuses  to  provide  for  the  Troops  ;  Departure 

of  Bernard 550 

Non-importation  Agreement  becomes  general 551 

Whigs  and  Tories ;  Parties  in  England  . . .  .  „ 552 

Proposed  Repeal  of  Taxes  except  on  Tea , 552 


CONTENTS.  xxiii 

Pag, 

New  York  submits  to  the  Quartering  Act ;  M'Dougall ....  553 

Boston  Massacre 554 

Repeal  of  Townshend's  Act  except  as  to  Tea 556 

Modification  of  the  Non-consumption  Agreements  ;    their 

Effects 558 

Trade  of  the  Colonies 559 

John  Adams  ;  Boston  Caucus 559 

Proceedings  in  Massachusetts  ;  Governor's  Salary 560 

Boston  Town  Meeting 561 

Affair  of  the  Gaspe 561 

Boston  Address  and  Report 561 

Virginia  Circular  Letter 562 

Hutchinson's  Letters  ;  Address  for  his  Removal 563 

Anti-slavery  Movement  in  Massachusetts . 563 

Case  of  Somersett 565 

South  Carolina  Regulators 567 

Dispute  in  Maryland  about  Fees  ;  Charles  Carroll 568 

Last  Lord  Baltimore  ;  Henry  Harford 568 

North  Carolina  Regulators  .  . 569 

North  Carolina  without  Law  Courts 570 

Delaware  and  Pennsylvania  ;  Wyoming  Controversy 570 

Pittsburg  claimed  by  Virginia  ;  Conolly  ;  St.  Clair 571 

New  York ;  boundary  Settlements  ;  Tryon  County 572 

Vermont ;  New  Hampshire  divided  into  Counties 572 

Treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix ;  Western  Land  Companies .......  574 

Settlements  on  the  Upper  Tennessee 575 

Kentucky  explored  ;  Daniel  Boone 575 

Indian  Cessions  in  Georgia 576 

Governors  of  Rhode  Island 576 

Colleges ;  Religious  Sects  and  Leaders 577 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 


.CHAPTER    XVI. 

SETTLEMENT  OF  CAROLINA. 
JLjARLY  in  the  reign,  of  Charles  I.,  about  the  time  that  CHAPTER 

XVI 

Massachusetts  Bay  was  settled,  a  tract  of  American  ter- 

ritory  south  of  the  Chesapeake  had  teen  granted,  by  the  1630. 
name  of  Carolana,  to  Sir  Robert  Heath,  the  king's  at- 
torney general.  He  assigned  to  Lord  Maltravers,  pres- 
ently, by  his  father V  death,  Earl  of  Surrey  and  Arundel, 
who  sent  a  ship  to  examine  the  coast.  But  domestic 
affairs  and  the  civil  war  in  England  soon  entirely  en- 
grossed Lord  Arundel's  attention.  The  projected  colony 
was  neglected,  and  the  grant  was  esteemed  forfeit  by 
non  user. 

Soon  after  the  Restoration,  the  disposition  to  speculate 
in  colonial  enterprises  again  revived.  Just  before  the 
grant  to  his  brother  of  the  province  of  New  York,  Charles 
II.  erected  out  of  the  territory  south  of  the  Chesapeake  1663. 
the  new  province. of  CAROLINA,  embracing  the  region  from 
Albemarle  Sound  southward  to  the  River  St.  John's,  and 
westward  to  the  Pacific.  This  vast  province  was  con- 
veyed to  eight  joint  proprietors,  including  some  of  the 
king's  principal  courtiers — Clarendon,  the  prime  minis- 
ter ;  Monk,  recently  created  Duke -of  Albemarle,  the  par- 
liamentary general  to  whom  Charles  owed  his  restoration 
to  the  British  thrones ;  Lord  Ashley  Cooper,  afterward  so 


26  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  celebrated  as  Earl  of  Shaftesbury ;  Lord  Berkeley  and  Sir 
George  Carteret,  steadfast  and  distinguished  Loyalists 
1663.  during  the  late  civil  war — known  also,  in  American  his- 
tory, as  the  proprietaries  of  New  Jersey;  Sir  William 
Berkeley,  brother  of  Lord  Berkeley,  and  already  familiar 
to  us  as  governor  of  Virginia ;  Lord  Craven,  and  Sir 
John  Colleton. 

March  23.  A  royal  charter,  principally  copied  from  that  of  Mary- 
land, erected  Carolina  into  a  county  palatine,  of  which 
the  eight  grantees  were  made  joint  proprietaries,  with 
rights  of  property  in  the  soil,  and  of  jurisdiction  over  the 
inhabitants,  very  much  the  same  with  those  bestowed  on 
Lord  Baltimore.  As  in  Maryland,  an  Assembly  was 
specially  secured  to  the  freemen  of  the  province.  By 
a  clause,  afterward  added  to  from  the  charter  of  Rhode 
Island,  the  proprietaries  Were  authorized  to  allow  a  cer- 
tain liberty  and  indulgence  in  matters  of  religion. 

Two  or  three  years  previously,  some  adventurers  from 
New  England  had  already  planted  a  little  colony  near 
1  the  mouth  of  Cape  Fear  River.  In  hopes  to  retain  these 
settlers,  and  to  attract  others  from  the  same  quarter,  the 
proprietaries  of  Carolina  offered  very  liberal  .terms :  a 
hundred  acres  of  land  for  each  free  settler,  or  man  serv- 
ant, and  fifty  acres  for  each  woman  servant  or  slave,  at  a 
quit-rent  of  a  halfpenny  per  acre  ;  liberty  of  conscience  ; 
and  the  right  to  nominate  thirteen  persons,  out  of  whom 
the  proprietaries  were  to  select  a  governor  and  six  coun- 
selors ;  the  authority  to  make  laws  to  be  vested  in  an 
assembly  composed  of  the  governor,  the  council,  and  a 
body  of  delegates  to  be  elected  for  that  purpose  by  the 
settlers.  But  the  settlement  at  Cape  Fear  did  not  prove 
successful.  The  land^in  that  vicinity  was  exceedingly 
barren.  The  neighboring  Indians  suspected  the  settlers 
of  selling  their  children  into  slavery,  under  pretense  of 


SETTLEMENT    OF   CAROLINA.  27 

sending  them  to  New  England  to  be  educated,  and  on  CHAPTER 

XVI 

that  ground  they  became  hostile.     The  adventurers  were       • 
discouraged  ;   the  greater  part  returned  home  ;   and  those  1665. 
who  remained  fell  into  such  distress,  that  contributions 
were  presently  taken  up  in  Massachusetts  for  their  relief.  1667. 

That  same  adventurous  Porey  who  first  passed  by 
land  from  the -Chesapeake  to  the  Delaware  was  the  first 
also  who  penetrated  from  Virginia  in  a  southern  direc-  1622. 
tion  toward  Albemarle  Sound,  not  known,  however,  by 
that  name  till  long  after.  In  the  next  forty  years,  other 
parties  of  Virginians  from  time  to  time,  folio  wed  up  his  ex- 
plorations ;  and,  shortly  after  the  re-establishment  of  the 
Church  of  England  in  Virginia,  some  small  settlements 
appear  to  have  been  formed  on  the  banks  of  the  Chowan 
by  emigrant  Dissenters  from  that  colony.  These  settle- 
ments the  proprietaries  bf  Carolina  supposed  to  be  with- 
in their  limits.  The  name  of  Albemarle,  in  honor  of  the 
duke,  was  given  to  this  district — a  name  extended  pres- 
ently to  the  adjacent  waters — and  Sir  William  Berke- 
ley, governor  of  Virginia  and  one  of  the  Carolina  pro- 
prietaries, was  authorized,  on  behalf  of  his  colleagues,  to 
assume  jurisdiction  over  it.  He  was  told,  however,  in 
his  instructions,  that  the  proposals  to  the  New  England 
settlers  at  Cape  Fear  were  "  not  intended  for  his  merid- 
ian," where  it  "was  hoped  to  find  "a  more  facile  peo- 
ple." But  Berkeley,  who  knew  those  people  well,  did 
not  think  it  expedient  to  overstrain  his  authority.  He 
appointed  as  governor  one  of  the  settlers,  William  Drum-  1664. 
mond,  who  subsequently  returned  to  Virginia,  and  was 
executed,  as  we  have  seen,  for  his  share  in  Bacon's  re- 
bellion. A  council  of  six  members  was  named  by  Berke- 
ley ;  an  Assembly  was  promised ;  and  as  no  immediate 
demand  was  made  for  quit-rents,  the  settlers  were  suf- 
ficiently satisfied  with  these  arrangements. 


• 

•  »** 

.:.**• 


1 


28  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER       Some  Barbadian  planters,  after  examining  the  coast 
of  Carolina,  had  entered  into  an  agreement  with  the 

1664.  proprietaries  for  removing  to  the  mouth  of  Cape  Fear 
River.      Sir  John  Yeamans,  the  leader  of  these  adven- 

1665.  turers,  appointed  governor  of  the  proposed  settlement, 
Jan.     arrivec[  from  Barbadoes  with  a  number  of  colonists,  and 

this  Barbadian  settlement,  called  Clarendon,  presently 
absorbed  the  New  Englanders  of  Cape  Fear,  to  whom 
Yeamans  was  instructed  to  be  "very  tender,"  in -the 
hope  still  entertained  of  drawing  others  thither.  The 
new  settlers  applied  themselves  to  the  manufacture  of 
boards,  shingles,  and  staves,  to  be  shipped  to  the  West 
Indies — to  this  day  a  chief  staple  of  that  region  of  pine 
forests  and  sandy  plains.  Yeamans  governed  with  pru- 
dence ;  and,  if  the  settlement  did  not  flourish t  it  continu- 
ed at  least  to  exist. 

Having  become  better  acquainted  with  the  geography 
of  their  province,  the  proprietaries  of  Carolina,  in  spite  of 
some  opposition  from  claimants  under  the  old  grant  to 
1665.  Sir  Robert  Heath,  obtained  a  second  charter,  whjch  ex- 
June.  Bended  their  limits  half  a  degree  to  the  north,  so  as  to 
include  the  settlements  on  the  C  ho  wan.  The  northern 
limit  .of  Carolina,  as  thus  determined,  stretching  from 
the  Atlantic  across  the  Mississippi,  forms,  at  this  day,  a 
boundary  for  six  states  of  the  Union,  and  the  line,  also,  of 
the  famous  Missouri  compromise.  The  southern  limit  of 
Carolina  was  carried,  by  this  new  charter,  a  degree  and 
a  half  to  the  south,  including  within  its  nominal  bound- 
ary the  Spanish  colony  of  St.  Augustine,  and,  indeed, 
the  whole  of  Florida  except  its  peninsular  extremity. 
1667.  By  an  additional  grant,  the  group  of  the  Bahamas 
was  presently  conveyed  to  the  same -proprietaries.  The 
attempts  formerly  made  to  plant  those  islands  having 
been  broken  up  by  the  Spaniards,  they  still  remained 


SETTLEMENT   OF   CAROLINA.  29 

uninhabited,  favorite  resorts   of  the  buccaneers,  whose  CHAPTER 

XVI 

exploits  now  began  ta  make  them  famous.      The  Island      " 
of  New  Providence  had  a  good  harbor,  very  convenient  1667. 
for  these  visitors,  but  tfye  arid  soil  was  hardly  such  as 
to  invite  cultivation — an  objection  common  to  the  whole 
group. 

The  infant  settlement  at  Albemarle  continued  to  re- 
ceive accessions  from  Virginia.  Others  came  from  New 
England,  and  a  colony  of  ship-builders  arrived  from  the 
Bermudas,  islands  famous  for  fast-sailing  vessels.  Drum- 
mond  was  succeeded  as  governor  by  Stevens,  under  whom 
the  first  laws  were  enacted  by  an  Assembly  composed  1669. 
of  the  governor  and  council,  with  twelve  delegates  chosen 
by  the  settlers.  As  in  Virginia,  land  was  promised  to 
all  new  comers.  Immigrant  debtors  were  to  be  protect- 
ed for  five  years  against  suits  on  any  cause  of  action  orig- 
inating out  of  the  colony — a  sort  of  legislation  borrowed 
also  from  Virginia.  Traffic  with  the  Indians^  was  pro- 
hibited to  strangers.  The  governor  and  council  acted  as 
a  court  of  justice,  and  were  entitled,  on  every  suit,  to  a 
fee  of  thirty  pounds  of  tobacco.  As  there  was  no  clergy- 
man in  the  colony,  they  also  performed  the  marriage  cere- 
mony. 

By  a  solemn  grant  from  the  proprietaries,  the  settlers  1672. 
were  presently  confirmed  in  possession  of  their  lands,  and 
they  also  obtained  the  right  of  naming  six  counselors  in 
addition  to  the  six  named  by  the  proprietaries. 

George  Fox,  the  founder  of  the  sect  of  Quakers,  on 
his  missionary  tour  through  the  American  colonies,  pres- 
ently visited  the  settlement  of  Albemarle.  There  were 
already  some  Quakers  there,  and  Fox's  preaching  made 
more.  Thus  Quakerism  gained  a  strong  and  early  hold 
upon  these  settlements  on  the  Chowan. 

The  task  of  framing  a  general  scheme  of  government 


3()  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 


CHAPTER  for  the  province   of  Carolina  had  been  intrusted  by  his 

fellow-proprietaries  to  Shaftesbury,  who  employed  upon  it 

1670.  his  friend  and  protege  John  Locke,  afterward  so  celebra- 
ted for  his' metaphysical  and  political  writings.  Locke 
became,  indeed,  the  chief  expounder  of  the  theoretical 
.principles  of  the  English  Whigs,  in  opposition  to  the 
Tory  system  of  the  divine  right  of  kings.  Accord- 
ing to  his  doctrine,  compact  is  the  true  basis  of  gov- 
ernment, and  the  protection  of  property  its  great  end. 
His  constitution  for  Carolina,  called  the  "'Grand  Mod- 
el,"'though  nominally  in  force  for  near  a  quarter  of  a 
century,  was  but  very  partially  carried  into  effect.  It 
was,  indeed,  wholly  impracticable  in  an  infant  colony. 
Yet,  for  the  sake  of  its  author,  and  because  it  continued 
for  many  years  a  bone  of  contention  between  the  pro- 
prietaries and  the  colonists,  it'  may  be  well  to  give  a 
brief  sketch  of  its  provisions. 

Carolina,  by  this  scheme,  was  to  be  divided  into  count- 
ies, each  containing  about  seven  hundred  and  fifty  square 
miles ;  the  lands  of  each  county  to  be  laid  out  in  forty 
divisions  of  twelve  thousand  acres  each  ;  eight  of  these 
divisions  to  be  called  seignories,  eight  to  be  called  ^baron- 
ies,  the  remaining  twenty-four  to  be  known  as  colonies. 
The  seignories  were  to  be  assigned  unalienably,  one  to 
each  of  the  eight  proprietors,  who  would  thus  possess,  as 
their  private  property,  a  fifth  part  of  the  province.  This 
number  of  eight  proprietors  was  to  remain  unchanged  ; 
and,  after  the  close  of  the  current  century — by  which 
time,  it  was  hoped,  the  colony  would  be  well  establish- 
ed— -proprietary  rights  were  to  be  unalienable ;  any  va- 
cancy^ by  failure  of  heirs,  to  be  filled  up  by  vote  of  the 
survivors. 

There  were  to  be  created  for  each  county  one  land- 
grave and  two  caciques,  in  whom  the  eight  baronies  were 


SETTLEMENT  OF   CAROLINA.  3^ 

to  be  vested  unalienably ';   the  landgrave  to  havp  four,  CHAPTER 

the  caciques  two  each.     This  number  of  three  nobles  for  __: '___ 

each  county  was  also  to  remain  unalterable.      During  1670. 
the  current  cqntury  the  lands  and  dignities  might  be 
sold  together,  but  after  that  period  there  were  to  be  no 
more  transfers ;   all  vacancies  to  be  filled  by  appoint- 
ment of  the  proprietaries. 

The  twenty-four  colonies  in  each  county  were  to  be 
apportioned  among  private  freeholders  ;  but  any  quantity 
not  more  than  a  colony  nor  less  than  a  quarter  colony,  if 
held  by  a  single  proprietor,  was  entitled  to  be  erected  into 
a  manor. 

Seignories,  baronies,  and  manors  were  to  be  cultivated 
by  a  race  of  heredita-ry  tenants  attached  to  the  soil,  to 
have  farms  of  ten  acres  each,  paying  as  rent  one  eighth 
of  the  produce  ;  and  over  these  tenants  the  lords  of  man- 
ors, baronies,  and  seignories  were  to  exercise  jurisdiction, 
in  manorial  courts,  without  appeal.  This  arrangement 
has  been  sneered  at  by  some  of  our  very  democratic 
historians  as  indicating  Locke's  imperfect  political  the- 
ory, but  surely  it  will  bear  a  most  favorable  comparison 
with  the  actually  existing  system  of  republican  South 
Carolina. 

While  the  rights  of  the  great  body  of  the  inhabitants 
were  thus  summarily  disposed  of,  a  very  complicated  sys- 
tem of  government  was  established  for  the  benefit  of  the 
few  nobles  and  freeholders.  Besides  the  court  of  propri* 
etors,  invested  with  supreme  executive  authority,  over 
which  the  oldest  proprietary  was  to  preside,  with  .the  ti- 
tle of  palatine,  there  were  to  be  seven  other  courts,  each 
presided  over  by  one  of  the  other  seven  proprietors,  with 
the  titles  respectively  of  admiral,  chamberlain,  chancel- 
lor, constable,  chief  justice,  high  steward,  and  treasurer. 
Besides  the  president,  eacfi  of  these  courts  was  to  have 


|f2  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  six  counselors  appointed  for  life,  of  whom  at  least  four 

XVI. 

were  to  be  nobles.      The  admiral's  court  was  to  have 


1670.  cognizance  of  shipping  and  trade;  the  chamberlain's,  of 
pedigrees,  festivals,  sports,  and  ceremonies ;  the  chan- 
cellor's, of  state  affairs  and  license  of  printing;  the  con- 
stable's, of  war  ;  the  chief  justice's,  of  ordinary  judicial 
questions  ;  the  high  steward's,  of  public  works  ;  the  treas- 
urer's, of  finance. 

All  these  courts  united  were  to  compose  a  grand  coun- 
cil of  fifty  members,  in  which  was  vested  exclusively  the 
right  of  proposing  laws,  to  be  submitted,  however,  for  ap- 
proval or  rejection,  to  a  parliament  of  four  estates,  pro- 
prietors, landgraves,  caciques,  and  commoners. 

The  four  estates  composing  the  Parliament  were  to 
sit  as  one  chamber,  each  proprietor,  landgrave,  and  ca- 
cique being  personally  entitled  to  a  seat  in  it,  but  the 
proprietors,  if  they  chose,  to  sit  by  deputy.  Besides 
the  nobleS  and  proprietors  sitting  in  their  own  right, 
there  were  to  be  four  representatives  of  the  commons 
from  each  county.  But  the  possession  of  five  hundred 
acres  of  land  was  necessary  to  qualify  for  a  seat ;  and 
none  could  vote  in  the  election  who  had  less  than  fifty 
acres.  Sessions  were  to  be  biennial.  The  proprieta- 
ries, in  their  separate  courts,  were. to  have  a  veto  upon 
all  acts.  . 

The  twenty-four  colonies  in  each  county  were  to  be 
arranged  in  four  precincts.  Each  precinct  was  to  have 
a  local  court,  whence  appeals  were  to  lie  to  the  court  of 
the  chief  justice.  Juries  were  to  decide  by  a  majority. 
To  plead  for  money  or  reward  in  any  court  was  denounc- 
ed as  "  base  and  vile."  None  could  be  freemen  who  did 
not  acknowledge  a  God  and  the  obligation  of  public  wor- 
ship. The  Church  of  England  was  to  be  supported  at 
the  public  expense- — a  provision  inserted  by  the  pro- 


A* 


SETTLEMENT  OF  CAROLINA.  33 


prietaries  against  the  opinion  of  Locke,  who  wished  to  CHAPTER 
put  all  sects  on  the  same  footing.     Any  seven  freemen,    ' 
however,  might  form  a  church  or  religious  society,  to  1670. 
be  recognized  and  tolerated,  provided  its  members  ad- 
mitted the  rightfulness  of  oaths — a  provision  which  ex- 
cluded Quakers.     By   another   provision,    "  every  free- 
man of  Carolina  shall  have  absolute  power  and  author- 
ity over  his  negro  slaves,  of  what  opinion  and  religion 
soever." 

This  complicated  scheme,  which  included  and  even  March  i. 
exaggerated  some  of  the  worst  features  of  the  feudal  sys- 
tem, was  adopted  by  the  noble  proprietors  of  Carolina  as 
a  ",  fundamental  and  unalterable  constitution"  for  their 
American  province.  Already,  before  its  formal  ratifica- 
tion, three  vessels,  fitted  out  with  emigrants,  at  an  ex- 
pense to  the  proprietaries  of  ^£12,000,  had  sailed  from 
England  under  the  command  of  William  Sayle,  a  mili-  Jan. 
tary  officer,  who,  some  twenty  years  before,  had  been  en- 
gaged in  attempts  to  plant  a  colony  in  the  Bahamas,  and 
who  had  been  more  recently  employed  by  the  proprieta- 
ries of  Carolina  in  exploring  the  coasts  of  their  province. 
Joseph  West  went  with  this,  company  as  commercial 
agent  for  the  proprietaries,  .authorized  to  supply  the  set- 
tlers with  provisions  and  tools,  and  to  receive  in  payment 
peltry,  beeswax,  and  agricultural  produce  generally— ^a 
speculation  which  imposed  in  the  end  a  heavy  loss  on  the 
proprietaries.  This  new  settlement  was  to  be  known  as 
the  county  of  Carter et.  Every  settler  was  to  be  enti- 
tled to  a  hundred  and  fifty  acres  of  land. 

The  vessels  of  this  expedition,  touching  at  Barbadoes 
on  their  way,, came  to  anchor  in  the  harbor  of  Port  Royal, 
on  whose  shores  were  yet  visible  some  traces  of  the  fort 
erected  by  the  Huguenots  a  hundred  years  before.  T^he 
name  of  this  fort  was  preserved  in  that  of  the  province, 
II.— C 


34  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  though  the  proprietors,  perhaps,  intended  also  a  compli- 
ment  to  Charles  II, 

1670.  The  , 'colonists  had  with  them  a  rough  draft  of  the 
"  Grand  Model,"  but  their  infant  settlement  demanded  a 
simpler  system.      The  government  was  intrusted  to  a 
council  of  ten  members,  five  nominated  by  the  proprie- 
tors, and  five  chosen  by  the  colonists^  to  be  joined  for  leg- 
islative purposes  by  an  assembly  of  twenty  delegates. 
Subsequently,  however,  the  council  was  composed  of  sev- 
en persons,  one  specially  delegated  by  each  of  the  propri- 
etaries, the  governor  being  the  delegate  and  representa- 
tive of  the  palatine. 

The  settlers  presently  removed  from  Port  Royal  to  a 
peninsula  between  two  rivers,  which  they  called  the  Ash- 
ley and  the  Cooper,  both  in  honor  of  Shaftesbury.  On 
the  neck  of  that  peninsula,  several  miles  above  the  junc- 
tion of  the  two  rivers,  they  planted  a  settlement  which 
they  called  Charleston. 

1671.  Sayle  soon  died,  and  West  was  appointed  by  the  coun- 
cil to  succeed  him.     But  the  proprietaries  preferred  Yea- 
mans,  governor  of  Clarendon,  which  seems  henceforth  to 
have  been  annexed  to  Carteret.     Locke  had  been  reward- 
ed for  his  legislative  labors  by  the  title  of  landgrave,  and 
the  four  baronies  appertaining  to  it.      As  there  were  now 
three  counties,  the  dignity  of  landgrave  was  also  bestowed 
on  Governor  Yeamans  and  James  Carteret.    By  the  death 
of  Albemarle,  Lord  Berkeley  had  become  palatine. 

Two  ship-loads  of  Dutch  emigrants  presently  arrived 
from  New  York,  discontented  with  the  English  rule  in 
that  province.  Yeamans  brought  a  number  of  slaves 
from  Barbadoes.  Some  accessions  also  came  from  En- 
gland ;  but  these  immigrants  had  to  encounter  the  usual 
difficulties  of  a,  first  settlement.  Notwithstanding  a  re- 
cent treaty  between  England  and  Spain,  by  which  a  reg- 


SETTLEMENT  OF  CAROLINA.  35 

ular  peace  in  the  American  seas,  and  a  mutual  recogni-  CHAPTER 

tion  of  their  respective  American  possessions  was  now ' 

first  established,  there  were  great  apprehensions  of  attack  1671. 
from  St.  Augustine.  The  settlers  quarreled,  also,  with 
the  neighboring  Indians,  clans  of  the  Catawbas,  few  in 
number,  yet  numerous  enough  to  be  objects  of  dread, 
European  grain  did  not  succeed  in  that  warm  climate. 
The  colonists  were  threatened  with  famine,  and  a  plan, 
in  which  even  Culpepper,  the  surveyor  general  of  the 
colony,  took  part,  was  formed  for  compelling  the  governor 
to  abandon  the  settlement.  -•  Yeamans,  however,  main- 
tained his  authority.  He  dispatched  a  sloop  to  Barba- 
does  and  another  to  Virginia  for  provisions.  A  season- 
able supply  also  came  from  England,  whither  Culpepper 
was  sent  to  answer  for  his  conduct.  Things  presently 
assumed  a  more  prosperous  appearance ;  but  the  propri- 
etaries complained  that  Yeamans  was  chiefly  intent  on 
his  own  private  interest,  in  shipments  to  Barbadoes  of 
provisions  bought  at  low  prices  of  the  poor  planters, 
clothed,  meanwhile,  without  any  thought  of  payment 
or  return,  out  of  the  proprietary  store.  They  still  con- 
tinued a  supply  of  goods,  their  aim  being  "not  the  prof- 
its of  merchants,  but  the  encouragement-  of  landlords." 
They  refused,  however^  to  furnish  cattle,  as  they  desired 
"  to  have  planters  there,  not  graziers." 

Owing  to  dissatisfaction  with  his  conduct,  Yeamans's 
commission  was  recalled,  and  West  was  appointed  govern-  1674. 
or,  being,  at  the  same  time,  created  a  landgrave.     As  an 
inducement  to  continue  in  office,  the  proprietaries  pres- 
ently assigned  to  him,  by  way  of  salary,  their  claims  to  a  1677. 
large  amount  for  advances  made  to  the  colonists,  which 
came  now  to  a  final  stop.    ,  The  original  settlement  of 
old  Charleston  began  to  find  a  competitor  in  a  new  vil- 
lage which  sprung  up  at  the  seaward  end  of  the  peninsula, 


36  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  at  the  point  of  junction  of  the  tw.o  rivers.      To  this  new 
village  the  name  of  CHARLESTON  was  presently  transfer- 
1680.  red,  and  it  grew  by  degrees  to  be  a  flourishing  town,  while 
its  more  ancient  rival  dwindled  *  away  and  disappeared. 

West's  anxiety  to  keep  well  with  the  settlers  made 
him    negligent   of  instructions   from   the   proprietaries. 

1683.  He  was  superseded,  in  consequence,  by  Joseph  Moreton, 
created  a  landgrave,  and  connected  by  marriage  with 
Joseph  Blake,  brother  arid  heir  of  the  celebrated  admiral 
of  that  name,  a  wealthy  and  zealous  Presbyterian,  a  re- 
cent emigrant  to  Carolina,  with  a  number  of  Noncon- 
formist followers.      The   counselors,  most  of  them  high 
churchmen  and  partisans  of  West,  proved  quite  unman- 
ageable.    Moreton  resigned,  and  West  was  temporarily 

1684.  reinstated  by  the  council.     Richard  Kyrle,  sent  from  En- 
gland by  the  proprietaries,  died  shortly  after  his  arrival, 
and  West,  by  the  choice  of  the  council,  was  a  second  time 
reinstated.      Robert  Quarry  was   then  sent  from  En- 
gland; but  he  did  not  give  satisfaction,  and  the  proprie- 

1685.  taries  finally  persuaded  Moreton  to  resume  the  office  of 
governor.     In  six  years  it  had  charig6d  hands'  five  times. 

The  population,  meanwhile,  continued  to  increase. 
Churchmeri  came  from  England  to  better  their  fortunes 
in  a  province  where  their  church  was  established  by  law. 
Dissenters  came  also  to  enjoy  a  toleration- authorized  by 
the  charter  of  Carolina;  though  not  allowed  atr  home. 
Unfortunately,  both  parties  brought  with  them  those 
fierce  religious  hatreds  with  which  the  mother  country 
was  at  that  time  distracted.  A  ship-load  of  foreign 
1679.  Protestants  was  sent  out  by  Charles  II,  to  introduce  the 
culture  'of  the  grape  and  the  olive,  and 'the  breeding  of 
silk-worms — branches  of  industry  thought  to  be  espe- 
cially adapted  to  the  climate.  Some  Dutch  and  Ger- 
mans came  also  on  their  own  account.  A  few  Presby- 


SETTLEMENT   QF   CAROLINA.  37 

terian  settlers  came  from  the  north  of  Ireland.      A  little  CHAPTER 

xvi 
Scotch    colony,  led   by  Lord  Cardross,  a    Presbyterian 

nobleman,  involved  on  religious  accounts  in  trouble  at  1684. 
home,  established  themselves  at  Port  Royal.  After  the 
revocation  of  the, Edict  of  Nantes,  of  the  numerous  Hu- 
guenots who  migrated  to  America,  a  large  number  set- 
tled in  South  Carolina,  especially  along  the  banks  of  the 
Santee,  thus  partially  realizing,  under  English  protec- 
tion, the  early  schemes  of  Huguenot  colonization. 

As  the  population  increased,  difficulties  with  the  pro- 
prietaries increased  also.  Even  their  own  deputies  in 
the  council  were  not  always  faithful  to  their  interests  and 
instructions.  To  the  "  temporary  laws"  which  they  sent 
out,  the  colonists  were  little  inclined1  to  assent.  vWith 
the  usual  wrong-headedness  of  party  spirit,  they  seem  to 
have  made  it .  a  point  to  reject  and  oppose  every  thing 
which  came  from  that  quarter,  no  matter  how  benefi- 
cial, reasonable,- or,  just.  In  spite  of  repeated  commands 
and  remonstrances,  they  persisted  in  a  partisan  War  with 
the  neighboring  Indians,  as  a.  pretense  for  kidnapping 
and  selling  them  in  the  West,  Indies  as  slaves.  One  of 
the  chief  charges  against  West  was  that  he  connived  at 
this  "  barbarous  practice."  The  Assembly  passed  an 
act  for  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  and  the  suppres- 
sion of  profaneness,  but  refused  to  enforce  the  collec- 
tion of  debts  contracted  ou't  of. the  province,  in  which, 
indeed,  they  did  but  follow  the  examples  of  Virginia  and 
Maryland.  They  had  also  a  great  horror  of  the  pay- 
ment of  quit-rents.  The  inhabitants  of  Charleston  and 
its  vicinity  opposed  and  defeated  the  division  of  the  colo- 
ny into  election  districts,  insisting  that  all  the  members 
of  Assembly  should  be  elected  at  Charleston — a  prac- 
tice introduced  at  the  commencement  of  the  colony,  but 
which  the  extension  of  seyiements  made  unjust  and  in- 


38  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  convenient.     The  southern  portion  of  the  province,  by  a 

new  division,  had  been  arranged  into  three  counties :  Col- 

1682.  leton,  including  the  district  about  Port  Royal ;  Berke- 
ley, embracing  Charleston  and  vicinity  ;  and  Craven, 
the  district  toward  Cape  Fear ;  but  Berkeley  alone  was 
so  populous  as  to  have  a  county  court. 

Notwithstanding  the  recent  treaty  with  Spain,  by 
which  the  buccaneers  lost  all  ptetense  of  protection  from 
the  British  flag,  there  was  a  strong  disposition  on  the 
part  of  the  Carolina  settlers  "to  give  them  aid  and  coun- 
tenance. These ,  remarkable  freebooters,  a  mixture  of 
French,  English,  and  Dutch,  consisted  originally  of  ad- 
venturers in  the  West  India  seas,  whose  establishments 
the  Spaniards  had  broken  up.  Some  fifty  or  sixty  years 
before,  cotemporaneously  with  the  English  and  French 
settlements  on  the  Caribbee  Islands,  they  had  commenced 
as  occasional  cruisers  on  a  small  scale  against  the  Span- 
iards, often  in  small  boats,  in  the  intervals  of  the  plant- 
ing season.  During  the  long  war  between  France  and 
Spain,  from  1635  to  16 6 0,  they  had  obtained  commis- 
sions to  cruise  against  Spanish  commerce  principally 
from  the  governors  of  the  French  West  India  Islands. 
Almost  any  thing,  indeed,  in  the  shape  of  a  commission 
was  enough  to  serve  their  purpose. v  As  an  offset  to  that 
Spanish  arrogance  which  had  claimed  to  exclude  all  other 
nations  from  the  West  India  seas,  the  Spanish  commerce 
in  those  seas  was  regarded  by  all  other  natiqns,  even 
during  peace  in  Europe,  as  fair  plunder.  The  number 
and  the  means  of  the  buccaneers  gradually  increased. 
The  unquiet  spirits  of  all  countries  resorted  to  them. 
Issuing  from  their  strong  holds,  the  Island  of  Tortuga, 
on  the  west  coast  of  St.  Domingo,  and  Port  Royal,  in 
Jamaica,  they  committed  such  audacious  and  success- 
ful robberies  on  the  Spanish- American  cities  as  to  win 


SETTLEMENT   OF   CAROLINA.  39 

almost  the  honors  of  legitimate  heroes.     They  were  coun-  CHAPTER 

XVI 

tenanced  for  a  time  by  France  and  England :   one  of  ' 

their  leaders  was  appointed  governor  of  Jamaica,  and  1684. 
another  was  knighted  by  Charles  II.      To  the  policy  of 
putting  an  end  to  these  piracies  the  Carolinians  did  not 
very  readily  accede.      Even  Governor  Quarry  connived     '. 
at  their  visits  to  Charleston,  and,  on  that  ground,  had 
been  superseded. 

The  Carolinians  also  claimed  the  right  to  levy  war 
by  their  own  authority  against  the  Spaniards  of  St.  Au- 
gustine, who  had  been  provoked  by  their  aggressions,  arid 
the  shelter  afforded  to  the  buccaneers,  to  break  up  the  1686. 
settlement  at  Port  Royal.  The  Assembly,  after  passing 
an  act  to  raise  men.  and  money  to  invade  Florida,  was 
induced,  by  the  remonstrances  of  the  proprietaries,  to  de- 
sist; but  the  mutual  hatred  and  dread  of  each  other,  be- 
tween the  Carolinians  and  the  Spaniards,  was  not  so 
easily  suppressed. 

In  Albemarle,.  or  North  Carolina — of  which  the  pop- 
ulation now  amounted  to  about  four  thousand  persons, 
producing  annually  eight  hundred  thousand  pounds  of 
tobacco,  a  produce  more  considerable  than  South  Carolina 
could  boast— the  authority  of  the  proprietaries  was  still 
less  respected.  On,  the  death  of  Stevens,  the%  Assembly,  1674. 
under  a  power  vested  in  them  to  make  temporary  ap- 
pointments in  such  cases,  elected  Cartwright,  their 
speaker,  as  governor.  After  a  two  years'  dispute  as  to 
the  extent  of  his  authority,  he  sailed  for  England,  ac-  1676, 
companied,  on  behalf  of  the  Assembly,  by  Eastchurch, 
his  successor  as  speaker,  to  lay  the  matter  before  the 
proprietaries.  In  the  course  of  the  late  disputes,  one 
Millar  had  been  arrested  on  a  charge  of  sedition,  and 
sent  to  Sir  William  Berkeley  for  trial,  'under  the  idea 
that,  in  his  character  of  proprietary,  he  had  some  juris- 


40  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 

CHAPTER  diction  in  the-  case.      This  Millar,  now  in  England  in 
"          search  of  redress,  was  appointed,  by  way  of  cdmpensa- 

1676.  tion,  secretary  of  the  colony,  the  office  of  governor  be- 
ing given  to  Eastchurch.     Millar  was  also  appointed, 
by  the  Commissioners  for  the  Customs,  to  collect  the 
duties,  then  recently  imposed,  on  "  enumerated  articles" 
shipped  fr-om  one  colony  to  another.      These  duties,  pay- 
able at  Albemarle,  were  considerable,  the  commerce  of 
that  settlement  being  engrossed  by  New  England  trad- 
ers, who  supplied  the  colonists  with  rum  and  other  more 
useful  articles,  taking  their  tobacco  in  return.      There 
was^  indeed,  no  direct  trade  between  England  and  Al- 
bemarle. 

The  new  appointees  set  sail  together;  but  while  East- 
church  stopped  in  the  West  Indies,  attracted  by  the 
charms  of  a  rich  widow,  Millar,  commissioned  as  pres- 

1677.  ident  of  the  council,  proceededr  meanwhile,  to  the  col- 
July.     onv>     Entering  upon  the  discharge  of  his  various  offices, 

he  compelled  a  collector,  previously  appointed  by  the 
Assembly,- to  refund  customs  to  the  amount  of  £3000. 
But  his  strict  execution  of  the  laws  of  trade,  and  some 
«  extravagant  acts  in  his  character  as  president,  soon  made 
him  unpopular,  of  which  advantage  was  taken  to  organ- 
ize an  insurrection,  headed  by  Gillarn  and  Culpepper, 
the  one  the  New  England  owner  of  a  vessel  trading  to 
Albemarle,  .the  other  that  same  surveyor  whom  Yea- 
mans,  governor  of  the  southern  colony,  had  sent  to  En- 
gland a  few  years  before  on  a  charge  of  sedition,  but 
who,  it  seems,  had  found  his  way  to  North  Carolina.  By 
Dec.  these  insurgents  Millar  was  imprisoned,  with  seven 
of  his  council.  A  new  Assembly  appointed  Culpepper 
collector,  assumed  the  government,  and  even  refused, 
when  Eastchurch  .arrived,  to  acknowledge  his  authof- 

1678.  ity.     Eastchurch  sent  to  Virginia  for  assistance,  but  died 


y 


SETTLEMENT   OF  CAROLINA.--  41 

shortly  after ;  and  Culpepper  and  his  party,  more  for-  CHAPTER 
tunate  than  their  cotemporary  insurgents'  in  Virginia  ' 
and  Maryland,  remained  for  two  years  in  the  undisturbed  1678. 
control  of  the  colony.  Presently  Millar  escaped  from 
custody,  and  went  to  England  with  his  complaints,  fol-  1680. 
lowed,  however,  by  Culpepper,  who  seems  to  have  had 
little  difficulty  in  arranging  matters  with  the  proprie- 
taries. But  just  as  he  was  on  board  ship  about  to  re- 
turn, he  was  seized  on  a  warrant  from  the  Privy  Coun- 
cil, no  doubt  at  Millar's  instigation,  charged  with  trea- 
son in  collecting  the  king's  revenue, without  authority.; 
on  which  charge  he  was  tried  under  a  statute  of  Henry 
VIII.  authorizing  trials  in  England  for  treasons  conl- 
mitted  out  of  the  realm.  Shaftesbury,  then  at  the  height 
of  popularity  and  influence,  appeared  in  his  defense;  and 
on  the  ground  that  the  proceedings  in  wbich  Culpepper 
had  figured  .ought  to  be  regarded,  not  as  treason  against 
the  king,  but  merely  as  a  feud,  among  the  planters,  in 
spite  of  the  opinion  of  the  judges  to  the  contrary,'  an  ac- 
quittal was  obtained.  The  proprietaries  promised  their 
assent  to  an  act  of  indemnity,  on  condition  that  the 
"king's  dues,"  the  parliamentary  duties  on  "enumerated 
articles,"  should  be  regularly  paid;  and  Seth  Sothel, 
lately  become  a  proprietary  by  the  purchase  of  Lord 
Clarendon's  shar e,  was  appointed  governor.  On  his  pas- 
sage to  America,  the  new  governor  was  captured  by  the 
Algerines,  but  was  presently  ransomed,  and  again  sailed 
far  Albemarle.  Meanwhile  the  government  was  carried 
on  by  a  temporary  administration,  not  without  .some  dis- 
orders, which  Sothel's  arrival  and  conduct  of  affairs  in  1683. 
no  respect  tended  to  allay.  He  was  accused  of  many 
acts  of  extortion  in  exacting  exorbitant  fees  ;  and,  in  the 
course  of  five  years,  made  himself  so  thoroughly  unpop-  1688. 
ular,  that  finally  he  was  deposed  by  the  Assembly,  ban- 


* 

42  HISTORY    OP   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  ished  for  twelve  months,  and  compelled  to  abjure  the  gov- 

XT.!* 

ernment  forever.  > 

1685.  The  proprietaries  of  Carolina  were  very  anxions  to 
conciliate  James  II.,  who  regarded  all  charters  with  a 
jealous  eye ;  and  when  presently  a  royal  custom-house 
was  established  at  Charleston,  they  sent  strict  orders 
for   the   enforcement  of  the   acts  of  trade.      The  colo- 
nists, not  less  obstinate  than  those  of  New  England,  set 
up,  the  charter  as  exempting  them  from  the  operation 
of  those  acts,  and  put  every  possible  obstacle  in  the  w£y 
of  their  enforcement.     The  king,  in  consequence,  pres- 
ently ordered  a  Quo  Warranto  to  issue  against  the  pro- 
prietaries, the  effects  of  which  they  evaded  by  proposing 
a  treaty  of  surrender. 

Amid  the  contending  factions  of  the  colony,  Governor 
Moreton  found  the  administration  no  easy  matter.     Aft- 

1686.  er  a  few  months  he  was  superseded  by  James  Colleton, 
brother  of  orie  of  the  proprietaries,  who,  like  the  former 
governors,  ^was  appointed  a  landgrave,  and  whos&  acces- 
sion, it  was  hoped,  would  give  dignity  and  stability  to 
the  office.      But  in  this  hope  the  proprietaries  were  en- 
tirely disappointed.      The  Assembly  dertied  the  authen- 

Nov.  ticity  of  a  full  copy  of  the  "  Grand  Model,"  laid  before 
them  for  the  first  time  by  the  new  governor.  They  re- 
fused to  acknowledge  its  binding  force,  preferring  the 
rough  draft  brought  out  by  the  first  colony,  which  alone, 
they  insisted,  had  been  accepted  by  the  freemen.  The 
more  refractory  members  being  expelled,  they  protested 
against  all  further  acts  of  the  Assembly  as  illegal.  To 

1687.  a  new  Assembly,  presently  summoned,  the  freemen  chose 
"such  members  as  engaged  to  oppose  the  governor  in  all 
things."     This  Assembly  drew  up  a  body  of  "  funda- 
mental laws,"  as  a  substitute  for  the  "  Grand  Model," 
but  to  these  the  proprietors  refused  their  assent.     When 


SETTLEMENT   OF   CAROLINA.  43 


Colleton  attempted  to  enforce  the  collection  of  quit-rents,  CHAPTER 

the  Assembly  imprisoned  the  secretary  of  the  province, _ 

seized  the  public  records,  and  set  the  governor  at  defi-  1688. 
ance.     As  a  last  effort  to  recover  his  authority,  under  1689. 
pretense  of  danger  from  the  Spaniards  and.  Indians,  Col- 
leton proclaimed  martial  law,  and  called  out  the  militia  ; 
but  this  very  militia  was  composed  of  his  opponents. 

In  the  midst  of  these  ferments,  Seth  Sothel,  lately  ban- 
ished from  Albemarle,  made  his  appearance  at  Charles- 
ton. /He  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  opposition,  and 
in  his  character  of  proprietary  claimed  the  office  of  gov- 
ernor. A  new  Assembly  was  called ;  Colleton  was  de-  1690. 
posed  and  banished ;  and  Sothel  was  installed  in  his  place. 

Amid  all  these  turbulences,  Carolina  had  continued  to     ', 
make  a  steady  progress,  and  both  the.  northern  and  the 
southern  settlements  were  now  firmly  planted. 


4!4  HISTORY    OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

PROVINCES  OF  NEW  YORK,  NEW  JERSEY,  AND  PENNSYL- 
VANIA. 

CHAPTER  -DY  authority  of  the  commissioners  to  whom  the  con- 

XVII 

quest  of  New  Netherland  had  been  intrusted,  the  question 

1664.  of  boundary  between  the  two  newly -constituted  provinces 
Nov.  30.  of  New  York  and  Connecticut  was  speedily  decided.    On 

the  main  land  the  boundary  was  to  be  a  line  north -north- 
west from  tide- water  iri  the  Mamaroneck  to  the  southern 
limit  of  Massachusetts.  But,  instead  of  running  twenty 
miles  east  of  the  Hudson,  and  parallel  to  it,  as  the  com- 
missioners were  led  to  suppose,  such  a  line  would  have 
crossed  the  Hudson  in  the  Highlands,  thus  deeply  indent- 
ing the  territory  of  New  York.  On  that  ground  this  set- 
tlement was  soon  declared  invalid  by  the  very  commis- 
sioners who  had  made  it,  and  a  renewed  dispute  continued 
tp  keep  alive,  between  the  inhabitants  of  Connecticut 
and  New  York,  that  distrust  and  dislike  to  which  a  long 
series  of  early  aggressions  from  New  England  had  orig- 
inally given  jOccasion.  To  New  York  was  assigned  the 
whole  of  Long  Island.  Massachusetts  also  lost,  for  a 
while,  the  islands  of  Nantucjtet  and  Martha's  Vineyard, 
of  which  the  temporary  transfer  to 'New  York  is  still  com- 
memorated in  the  name  of  Duke's  county. 

1665.  At  a  general  meeting  held  at  Hernpstead,  on  Long  Isl- 
March  1.  an(j;  attended  by  deputies  from  all  the  towns,  Governor 

Nichols  presently  published,  on  his  own  and  the  duke's 
authority,  a  body  of  laws  for  the  government  of  the  new 
province,  alphabetically  arranged,  collated,  and  digested, 


PROVINCE  OF  NEW  yORK.  '  45 

"  out  of  the  several  laws  now  in  force  in  his  majesty's  CHAPTER 

xvn 
American  colonies  and  plantations,"  exhibiting,  indeed, . 

many  traces  of  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts  legisla-  1665. 
tio-n.  Each  township  was  authorized  to  choose,  as- lo- 
cal magistrates,  eight,  presently  reduced  to  four,  "over- 
seers," to  hold  office  for  two  years,  half  to  go  out  annu- 
ally. A  constable  was  also  to  be  chosen  annually  from 
among  those  overseers  whose  term  of  office  was  completed. 
The  constable  and  overseers1  together  constituted  a  .town 
council,  authorized  to  make  town  by-laws.  They  were 
also  required  to  prepare  a  list  or  valuation  of  all  the  male 
inhabitants,  sixteen  years  old  and  upward,  every  person 
or  poll  to  be  rated  at  £18,  every  cow  at  £5,  every  horse 
at  £12,  and  so  on,  according  to  which  .list  were  to  be 
collected  all  taxes,  both  those  imposed  by.  the  governor 
and  council  for  general  purposes,  and  those  which  the 
overseers  were  themselves  authorized  to  raise  for  build- 
ing churches,  maintenance  for  the  minister,  provision  fqr 
the  poor,  and  other  local  purposes.  Public  rates  were 
payable  in  wheat  at  five  shillings,  rye  and  pease  at. four 
shillings,  Indian  corn  at  three  shillings,  oats  'at  two  and 
sixpence  the  bushel,  beef  at  threepence,  and  pork  at  four- 
pence  the  pound ;  "  and  no  other  payment  'shall  be  allow- 
ed of."  The  New  England  standard  was  presently  adopt- 
ed, the  value  of  the  dollar  being  fixed  at  six  shillings. 

There  was  to  be  a  church  in  every  town  sufficient  to 
accommodate  two  hundred  persons.  "  To  prevent  scandal- 
ous and  ignorant  pretenders  to  the  ministry  from  intrud- 
ing themselves  as  teachers,"  no  minister  was  to  be  admit-, 
ted  to  office  who  did  not  produce  testimonials  to  the  gov- 
ernor of  ordination  by  t*  some  Protestant  bishop  or  minis- 
ter within  some  part  of  his  majesty's  dominions,  or  the  do- 
minion of  sdmfe  foreign  prince  of  the  Protestant  religion  ;" 
upon  which  testimony  the  governor  shall  induct  the  said 


46  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  minister  into  the  parish  that  shall  make  presentation  of 

XVII 

him,  as  duly  elected  b.y  the  major  part  of  the  inhabitants, 
1665,  householders.**  The  minister  was  required  to  preach 
every  Sunday  ;  to  pray  for  the  king,  queen,  Duke  of 
York,  and  the  royal  family  ;  and  to  publicly  administer 
the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  once  every  year  at 
least ;  but  no  person  of  scandalous  or  vicious  life  was  en- 
,  titled  to  admission  to  it,  ,unless  he  had  first  "  given  satis- 
faction" to  the  minister.  No  minister  could  refuse  the 
sacrament  of  baptism  to  the  children  of  Christian  parents, 
'  under  penalty  of  loss  of  preferment.  Sundays  were  not 
to  be  profaned  by  travelers,  laborers,  or  vicious  persons. 
No  person  who  professed  Christianity  was  to  be  molested, 
fined,  or  imprisoned  for.  differing  in  judgment  in  matters 
of  religion.  All,  however,  must  contribute  to  the  support 
of  the  regular  minister,  "  which  is  no  way  judged  to  be 
an  infringement  of  the  liberty  of  conscience." 

The  town  overseers,  with  the  constable,  constituted  a 
local  court  for  the  trial  of  all  cases  under  the  value  of  ^£5, 
with  an  appeal  to  the  Court  of  Sessions,  to  consist  of  the 
justices  of  the  peace  for 'each  county.  From  the  judg- 
ment of  the  Sessions  an  appeal  lay  to  the  Court  of  Assize, 
held  by  the  governor,  council,  and  justices,  by  which 
court,  also,  additions  to  the  laws  were  from  time  to  time 
promulgated.  In  all  suits  at  law  a  reference  Was  to 
be  recommended  to  the  parties.  Trials  were  to  be  by 
juries  of  twelve  in  the  Court  of  Assize,  of  six  or  seven 
in  the  Sessions,  but  in  the\  town  courts  without  a  jury. 
Verdicts  were  to  be  determined  by  a  majority,  except  in 
capital  cases,  where  unanimity  was  required.  The  ju- 
rymen were  to  be  selected  from  among  the  overseers  of 
the  towns ;  and,  by  a  provision  borrowed  from  the  Fun- 
damentals of  Massachusetts,  when  not  clear  in  their  judg- 
ments, they  might  advise  in  open  court,  but  not  other- 


PROVINCE   OF  NEW  YORK.  47 

wise,  "  with  any  particular  man  upon  the  bench,  or  any  CHAPTER 
other  whom  they  shall  think  fit  to  resolve  and  direct  them     " 
before  they  give  their  verdict."      The  bench  was  briefly  1665. 
to  sum  up  the  evidence  by  way  of  information  to  the  j  ury. 

The  capital  offenses,  eleven  in  number — denial  of  God 
and  his  attributes,  premeditated  murder,  murder  with 
sword  or  dagger  on  an  unarmed  man,  poisoning  or  guile- 
ful murder,  two  offenses  of  uncleanness^  man-stealing, 
perjury  in  a  capital  case,  and  two  offenses  of  treason — 
were  borrowed,  with  some  modifications,  from  the  Massa- 
chusetts code,  leaving  out,  however,  idolatry,  witchcraft, 
adultery,  rape,  and  rebellious  stubbornness  In  children, 
punishable  with  death  in  that  colony.  Arson  constituted 
a  twelfth  capital  offense,  but  the  punishment  might  be 
remitted  if  full  compensation  were  made.  Theft  was 
punishable  with  whipping  and  fine.  Where  no  special 
punishment  was  provided,  the  case  was  to  be  sent  up  to 
the  Court  of  Assize,  to  be  decided  according  to  their  dis- 
cretion, but  "  not  contrary  to  the  known  law  of  En- 
gland." That  court  also  had  jurisdiction  of  matters  of 
equity. 

Each  town  was  to  have  its  military  company.  All 
males  above  sixteen  were  to  be  taught  four  times  a  year 
"  in  the 'comely  handling  and  ready  use  of  their  arms  in 
all  postures  of  war,"  the  officers  to  be  nominated  by  the 
overseers  and  commissioned  by  the  governor.  There 
were  to  be  annual  county  musters,  and  a  general  muster 
once  in  two  years.  The  governor  was  authorized  to  call 
out  the  militia  to  suppress  insurrection  and  invasion. 
He  might  raise  volunteers  for  the  assistance  of  the  other 
neighboring  provinces  ;  but  no  man  could  be  compelled  to 
bear  arms  or  wage  war  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  province. 

AIL  town  officers  might  be  displaced  by  warrant  of  the 
governor  and  council  for  neglect  of  duties  or  other  "  no- 


48  HISTORY  OF.  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  torious  misdemeanor,"  the  vacancy  to  be  filled  by  a  new 

-.-    appointment  or  election. 

16,65V       ".No  Christian  shall  be  kept  in  bond  slavery,  villan- 
age,  or  captivity,  except  such  who  shall  be  judged  there- 
unto by  authority,- or  such  as  willingly  have  sold  or  shall 
sell  themselves,"  in  which  case  a  record  of  such  servitude 
^hall  be  entered  in  the  Court  of  Sessions,  "held  for  that 
jurisdiction  where  the  master  shall  inhabit."     This  pro- 
vision, borrowed,  with  some  modifications,  from  the  "  Mas- 
sachusetts  Fundamentals,"  did  not  exempt  heathen  ne- 
groes and  Indians  from  slavery,  nor  was  it  to  operate  to 
the  prejudice  of  any  "  who  shall  by  any  indenture  take  ap- 
prentices for  term  of  years,  or  other  servants  for  term  of 
yfears  or  life."      Under  a  provision  borrowed  from  the 
Connecticut  code,  fugitive  servants  might  be  pursued  by 
hue  and  cry  .at  the  public  charge ;  but  this  was  presently 
found  too  expensive,  and  the  cost  was  imposed  on  the 
parties  concerned.      Runaway  servants  were  to  forfeit 
double  the  time  of  their  absence,  and  the  cost  of  their  re- 
capture.    All  who  aided  in  concealing  them  were  liable 
to  a  fine.      Tyrannical  masters  and  mistresses  might  be 
complained  of  to  the  overseers,  and  proceeded  against 
at  the  Sessions ;  and  servants  maimed  by  their  masters 
were  entitled  to  freedom  and  damages.      During  serv- 
itude they  were  forbidden  to  sell  or  buy.     Any  mas- 
ter yrf  a  vessel  carrying  any  person  out  of  the  colony 
without  a  pass  was  liable  for  his  debts  ;  and,  by  a  subse- 
quent provision,  any  unknown  person  traveling  through 
any  town  without  a  pass  was  liable  to  be  Arrested  as  a 
runaway,  and  detained,  till  he  proved  his  freedom,  and 
paid,  by  work  and  labor,  if  not  otherwise  able,  the  cost 
of  his  arrest. 

No  person  was  to  trade  with  thd  Indians  for  furs,  or 
to  sell  them  guns,  ammunition,  boats,  or  spirituous  liq- 


' 


• 

P  R  0  V  I N  C  E%  0  F.  N  E  W  Yd  R  K.  4  9 

qors,  without  license  from  the.  governor.      Upon  com-  CHAPTER 

plaint  to  any  court  by  Indians  of  injuries  done  to  them, 

they  were  to  have  as  speedy  and  ample  redress  "  as  if  1665. 
the    case    had  been  betwixt  Christian  land  Christian." 
The  testimony  of  heathen  against  Christian  was  "  not 
altogether  to  be  allowed ;"  yet,  " when  it  meets  with      , 
other  apparent  circumstances,  such  as  may  be  sufficient 
to  convince  a  jury,"  it  might  be  admitted,  especially  in 
liquor  cases.      All  "  defensive  or  vindictive  wars"  against 
the  Indians  were  to  be  a  common  charge. 

No  person  was  to  sell  any  strong  drink  by  retail,  or    ^ 
"  in  less  quantity  than  a  quarter  cask,"  without  a  cer- 
tificate of  his  good  behavior  from  the  constable  and  two 
overseers  of  the  parish,  and  a  license  from  the  Sessions. 

Marriages  might  be  celebrated  by  a  minister  or  jus- 
tice of  the  peace  after  the  publication  of  bans,  or  on  li- 
cense from  the  governor.  But  in  this  latter  case  the 
parties  were  to  purge  themselves  by  oath  of  any  pre-ex- 
isting marriage,  and,  if  guilty  of  perjury,  were  to  have 
their  tongues  bored  through  with  a  red  hot  iron,  and  be 
punished  for  adultery  by  fine  and  imprisonment;  The 
consent  of  parents  and  masters  was  necessary  in  case  of 
minors  and  servants,  not,  indeed,  to  the  validity  of  the 
marriage,  but  to  save  the  person  celebrating  it  from  a 
fine.  No  man  was  "  to  harbor,  conceal,  or  detain,  con- 
trary to -the  consent  of  the  husband,  any  married  wom- 
an," under  penalty  of  five  shillings  forfeiture  for  every 
hour's  entertainment  after  notice.  In  case,  however,  of 
"  barbarous  cruelty,"  the  constable  and  overseers  might 
afford  protection  to  the  wife  "in  the  manner  as  is  di- 
rected for  servants  in  such  cases,  and  not  otherwise,-" 
Five  years'  absence,  unheard  of,  justified  a  re-marriage ; 
but  if  such  ,  absent  parties,  on  their  return,  could  show 
that  .they  had  attempted  to^  let  it  be  known  they  were 
II.— D 


50  HISTORY   OF   THE  UN'ITED  STATES. 

alive,  or  if  >4i  they  were,  by  imprisonment  or  bond  slavery 


-  with  the  Turks  or  other  heathen,  lawfully  hindered  from 


16,65.  giving  such  information,"  they  might  then  "  challenge 
pre-marriage,  and  obtain  an  order  for  their  cohabiting  as 
formerly."1  If  neither  party  sued  for  such  'order,  they 
'might,  "by  mutual  agreement,  enter  -a  release  to  each 
other  in  the  office  of  records,  and  both  remain  free  from 
their  former  -obligations." 

Chirurg'eOns  and  -physicians  were  not  to  presume  to 
exercise  any  force,  violence,  or  cruelty  upon  the  bodies 
of  young  or  old,  or  p  to  put  forth  any  act  contrary  to 
the  known  approved  rules  of.  art  in  each  mystery  or  oc- 
cupation," without  the  advice  and  counsel  of  such  as  are 
skillfal  in  the  same  art,  if  such  may  be  had,  or,  at  least. 
of  •"  some  of  the  Wisest  and  gravest  then  present,"  and 
the  consent  of  the  patient,  if  competent  to  give  it  ;  a 
law,  however,  not  intended  to  discourage  any  from  "all 
lawful  use  of  their  skill,"  -but  merely  "  to  inhibit  and 
restrain  the  presumptuous  arrogancy  of  such  as,,  through 
confidence  in  their  skill,  dare  boldly  attempt  violence,  to 
'the  prejudice  -and  hazard  of  life  or  limb." 

In  future,  'no  grants  of  land  from  the  Indians  were  to 
be  valid  without  the  governor's  consent  and  approval. 
-  All  possessors  of  lands  for  four  "years  last  .past,  whose 
title  in  that  time  had  not  been  questioned,  or  should  not 
be  in  the  next^  six  months,  were  confirmed  as  owners. 
Lands  were  declared  free  of  all  feudal  incumbrances  ; 
but  the  owners  wer.e  required  to  bring.  in  their  former 
grants,  and  to  take  out  new  patents  from  the  duke. 
Fees  w^re  payable  on  these  new  grants,  and  Nichols 
and-  his  successor  reaped  from  this  source  a  rich  harvest. 
New  grants  were  to  be  made  by  the  governor,  upon  such 
terms  as.  might  be  agreed  upon.  The  purchaser  was  to 
survey  the  lands  and  lodge  a  copy  of  the  survey  in  the 


PROyiNCE   OF  NEW  JERSEY,  gj 

record  office  ;  but  if  the  lands  were  not  seated  in  three  CHAPTER 
years,  the  purchase  became  void. 

Such  were  some  of  the  chief  provisions  of  the  code  1665. 
known  as  the  "  Duke's  Laws,"  which  Nichols  imag- 
ined  "  could  not  but  be  satisfactory  even  to  the  most 
factious. Republicans."  A  considerable  number  of  immi- 
grants seem  to  have  come  in  on  the  strength  of  it  from 
the  neighboring  colonies  of  New  England. 

To  the  city  of  New  York  Nichols  presently  granted 
a  charter,  in  substance  the  same  with  the  former  Dutch  June  12. 
one,  by  which  the  management  of  municipal  affairs,  and 
authority  as  a  local  court,  were  granted  to  a  mayor,  five 
aldermen,  and  a  sheriff. 

Shortly  after  obtaining  his  charter,  and  even  before 
the  seizure  of  New  Nether  land,  the  Duke  of  York  had 
dismembered  his  province'  by  conveying  to  Sir  George  1664. 
Carteret  and  Lord  Berkeley,  two  courtiers,  known' to  us  June  23' 
already  among  the  ^proprietaries  of  Carolina,  all  that  ter- 
ritory bounded  on  the  east  by  the  Hudson,  on  the  west 
by  the  Delaware,  and  on  the  north  by  a  line  drawn  from 
the  Hudson  at  the  forty-first  parallel  of  latitude,  to  strike 
the  Delaware  in  41°  40'.  To  this  tract  was  given  the 
name  of  NEW  JERSEY,  in  compliment  to  Carteret,  who, 
as  governor  of  the  little  Island  of  Jersey,  ifl  the  British 
Channel,  had  obstinately  stood  out  during  the  late  civil 
war,  being  the  last  commander  within  the  circuit  of  the 
British  Isles  to  lower  the  royal  flag. 

The  proprietaries  of  this  new  province  immediately 
published  "Concessions,"  offering  fifty  acres  of  land  for 
each  member  of -a  settler's  family,  and  the  same  amount 
for  each  servant  or  slave,  at  a  quit-rent  of  a  halfpenny 
per  acre.  A  similar  grant  was  also  promised,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  usage  of  Virginia,  to  all  indented  servants 
on  the  expiration  of  their  bondage.  No  quit-rents  were 


52  HISTORY, OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  to  be  demanded  till  1670.     Local  affairs  were  to  be  ad- 

xvn  •  \  • 
ministered  by  a  governor  and  council  nominated  by  the 

1664.  proprietaries,  the  counselors  not  to  exceed  twelve;  and 
to  be  joined,  for  legislative  purposes,  by  twelve  delegates 
chosen  by  the  freeholders.      This' Assembly  was  author- 
ized to  appoint  clergymen,  to  be  maintained  at  the  com- 
mon expense ;  but  any  of  the  colonists  might  associate 
for -the  maintenance^  of  additional  ministers  of  their  own. 

1665.  Philip  Carteret  presently  arrived  with  a  number  of 
settlers   and  a  commission  as  governor.     With  a  hoe 
upon  his  shoulder,  to  remind  his  people  of  the  object  of 
their . coming,-  he  landed  at  the  spot  called,  soon  after, 
Elizabethtowrio  where  already  were  a  few  families,  emi- 
grants from  Long  Island,  to  whom  Nichols,  ignorant  of  the 
transfer  of  New  Jersey,  had  given  leave  to  purchase  land 
of  the  Indians.     Nichols  complained  loudly  of  the  incon- 
venience arid  disadvantage  to  New  York  of  having  an- 
other separate  colony  planted  on  the  same  river,  alleging 
that  the  duke  had  been  misled  into  giving  away  the  best 
part  of  his  province.      Besides. more  recent  immigrants, 
there  were  within  the  bounds  of  New  Jersey,  at  the  time 
of  its  transfer,  a  number  of  old  Dutch  settlers,  some  at 
Bergen,  on  the  Hudson,  opposite  New, York,  and  others 
along  the  west  shore  of  Achter  Cul,  or  Newark  Bay. 
Carteret  confirmed  the  grants  made  by  Nichols,  -and  sent 
agents 'to  New  England  for  additional  settlers. 

The  only  Indian  inhabitants  of  New  Jersey  .Were  some 
little  clans  of  the  Delawares,  few  in  numbers,  and  quite 
inoffensive.  For  a  trifling  consideration,  they  readily 
conceded  the  occupancy  of  the  lands  on  the  Passaic  and 
the  Raritan.  The  climate  was  mild  artd  inviting;  the 
soil  along  the  rivers  was  rich ;  emigrants  came  in  num- 
bers from  Long  Island  and  New  England,  and  some 
from  Great  Britain.  Elizabeth  town,  so  named  in  honor 


PROVINCE  OF  NEW  JERSEY.  53 

of  Lady  Carteret,  and  soon  selected  as  the  seat  of  govern-  CHAPTER 

ment,- Middletown,  Shrewsbury,  Newark,  Woodbri^ge, _ 

and  Bergen  became,  in  a  short  time,  thriving  settle-  1667. 
ments.  Some  of  these  towns,  founded  by  emigrants 
from  Connecticut,  obtained  local  .powers-  of  self-govern- 
ment, and  constituted  themselves  on  the  narrow  prin- 
ciple of  excluding  from  political  rights  all  but  church 
members. 

Carteret  presently  called  the  first  Assembly,  of  which  1668. 
two  sessions  were  held.      But  little  was  done.      Indeed, 
some  of  the  towns  denied  the  Assembly's  authority,  on 
the  ground  of  their  local  rights  of  self-government. 

Matters,  however,  went  on  pretty  smoothly   till  the 
time  came  for  the  payment  of  the  quit-rents. .     Some  of  1670. 
the  early  immigrants  claimed  exemption  from  those  rents 
on  the  ground  that,  previous  to  the  Duke  of  York's  con- 
veyance to  the  present  proprietors,  they  had  already,  by 
Nichols's  permission,  purchased  their  lands  of  the  Indians. 
Many  who  had  come  in  since  pretended  also  to  class 
themselves  with  these   early   immigrants.      The  whole 
colony,  in  fact,  combined  against  the  payment  of  quit- 
rents.     The  malcontents  even  went  so  far  as  to  call  a 
new  Assembly,  which  set  up  a  rival  governor  in  the  per-  1672. 
son  of  u  worthless  illegitimate  son  of  one  of  the  proprie-         y' 
tarles.      Finding  his  authority  disregarded,  by  advice  of 
his  council,  Governor  Carteret  proceeded  to  England,     My. 
leaving  John  Berry  as  his  deputy. 

The  proprietaries  soon  after  sent  out 'a  new  version  1673. 
of  the  Concessions,  in  which  the  powers  of  the  Assembly 
were  somewhat  curtailed.  Among  other  things-,  the 
right  of  appointing  ministers  was  transferred-  to  the 
governor  and  council.  The  Duke  of  York  discounte- 
nanced the  insurgents,  and  the  king  sent  them  a  letter 
fixing  a  period  within  whi«h  they  were  required  to  sub- 


54  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITE'D    STATES. 

CHAPTER  mit  to  the  proprietaries,  to  pay  up  the  quit-rents,  and  to 
.       accept  the  new  concessions.      But,  before  the  expiration 

1673.  of  that  period,  the  province  was  again  in  the  hands  of  the 
Dutch, 

1667.  Francis  Lovelace,  successor  of  Nichols  as  governor  of 
New  York,  as  a  means  of  raising  a  revenue,  imposed,  by 
the-' duke's  sole  authority,  a  duty  often  per  cent,  upon 
all  imports  and  exports.  This,  indeed,  was  only  a  revi- 
val of  the  duty  formerly  levied  under  the  Dutch  regime. 
Eight  towns  on  Long  Island  protested  against  taxes  im- 
posed by  the  sole  authority  of  the  governor  and  council ; 

1670.  but  their  protest  was  ordered  to  be  burned  by  the  com- 
mon hangman^ 

'  The  settlements  on  the  west  side  of  the  Delaware, 
though  not  included  in  the  Duke  of  York's  patent,  had 
been  taken  possession  of  by  his  officers  as  a  part  of  the 
province  of  New  Netherland.  Though  the  English  had 
always  disputed  the  rights  of  the  Dutch,  and  though  the 
very  grant  of  New  York  had  assumed  tlieir  futility,  those 
1  rights  were  now  set  up  by  Lovelace  in  a  correspondence 
with  the  governor  of  Maryland,  as  sufficient,  notwith- 
standing the  express  terms  by  which  the  Delaware  was 
made  the  eastern  boundary  of  Maryland,  to  sustain  a  ti- 
tle by  conquest  for  the  Duke  -of  York  in  the  district  west 
of  the  Delaware.  Against  the  attempts  of  Governor  Cal- 
ver-'t  to  compel  the  Dutch  settlers  near  Cape  Henlopen  to 
Submit  to  the  Maryland  jurisdiction,  Lovelace  strongly  fe- 

1672.  monstrated.     To  the  town  of  Newcastle  he  gave  a  charter. 

The  arts  arid  bribes  of  Louis  XIV.  seduced  Charles 

1673.  II." into  a  new  war  with  Holland,  and  a  Dutch  squadron, 
after  capturing  many  English  traders  homeward  bound 

July  30.  from  Virginia,  presently  appeared  before.  New  York. 
A  large  part  of  the  population  was  still  Dutch.  Some 
of  the  Dutch  settlers  had  removed  to  South  Carolina,  and 


PROVINCE   OF  NEW  YORK.  55 

some  few,  perhaps,  had  returned  to  Holland;   but  the  CHAPTER 

greater  part,  including  Stuy vesant,  the-  late  director,  re- 

rnained  in  the  province.  Manning,  who  hejd  the  fort  1673. 
with  a  company  of  regulars,  surrendered  at  the  first  sum- 
mons, and  the  capitulation  included  the  .whole  province. 
Lovelace,  who  seems  to  have  been  absent  at  the  surren- 
der, was  presently  sent  to  England  in  the  Dutch  fleet. 
Manning  was  afterward  accused  of  cowardice  and  treach- 
ery in  having  yielded  so  easily  ;  and,  on  his  own  confes- 
sion, was  adjudged,  guilty  by  a  court  martial.  The  colo- 
nists, for  the  most  part,  were  not  greatly  dissatisfied  with 
the  change.  The  local  magistrates,  except  a  few  at  the 
eastern  extremity  of  Long"  Island,  did  not  hesitate  to 
swear  allegiance  to  the  Dutch.  The  people  of  New  Jer- 
sey, where  a  government  could  hardly  be  said  to  exist, 
were  prompt  to  follow  the  example  ;  so,  also,  were  the 
settlements  on  the  Delaware.  For  a  moment  the  prov- 
ince of  New  Netherland  revived. 

At  the  peace  between  England  and  Holland  a  few  1674. 
months  after,  it  was  agreed  that  all  conquests  should  be 
mutually  restored.  Thus  'the  Dutch  regime  finally  van- 
ished from  North  America.  The  free  trade  with  Hol- 
land, and  the  right  to  be  governed  by  the  Dutch  law,  se- 
cured by  the,  original  capitulation,  seem  to  have  been 
henceforth -regarded  as  extinct. 

To  obviate,  so  far  as  he  was  concerned;  any  similar" 
consequences  of  the  surrender  and  recovery  of  the  prov- 
ince, the  Duke  of  York  obtained  from  the  king  a  riew  June  2.0. 
patent.      Like  the  former  one,  it  was  very  short,  with-    v' 
out  any  of  the  elaborate  provisions  of  the  charters  of  Ma- 
ryland-and  Carolina,  the  duke  being  empowered  by  "it 
"  to  govern  the  inhabitants  by  such  ordinances  as  he  and 
his  assigns  should  establish." 

Major  Edmund  Andros*  was  presently  sent  out  to  re- 


56  HIS-TQKY   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  sume  possession  for  the  duke,  and  to  him  the  Dutch  an- 

xvir 
______  thorities  surrendered  the  province.,     The  prayer  x)f  the 

1674.  inhabitants,  to  be  allowed  an  Assembly,  though  counte- 
Oct.  31.  nancecl  by  Andros,  was  expressly  disallowed.      But  the 

former  "  book  of  laws"  was  re-established,  and  the  duke's 
intention  was  proclaimed,,  that  all  estates  and  privileges 
possessed  prior  to  the  conquest  should  continue  to  be  en- 
joyed. ;  The  .inhabitants  of  the  three  eastern  towns  of 
Long  Island  stated  in  a  petition  to  Andros  that,  by  the 
aid  of  Connecticut,  they  had  succeeded,  in  repelling  the 
Dutch,  and  they  prayed  liberty  to  continue  united  to 
that  colony.  ,  Not  only  was  this  petition  refused,  but  An- 
drbs  revived  the  claim  of  New  York  to; the  whole  terri- 
tory as  far  as  Connecticut  River.  For  the  enforcement 

1675.  of  that  claim,  he  presently  appeared  before  Saybrook  with 
July-     several  armed  sloops  ;-  but,  finding  the  inhabitants  resolv- 
ed to  resist,  he  did  not  attempt  to  use  force. 

He  was  more  successful  in  establishing  his  authority 
over  Sagadahoc,:  the  district  between  the  Kennebec  and 
the  Penobscot,  of  the  greater  part  of  which,  during  the 
Dutch  conquest,  Massachusetts,  as  we  have  seen,  had 
assumed  jurisdiction.  Almost  ruined  by  the  Indian  war 
still  raging^  the  few  scattered  hamlets  along  that  coast 
1677.  readily  submitted  to  Andros,  by  whom  they  were  con- 
stituted into  the  county  of  Cornwall.  A  fort  was  erect- 
ed for  their  defense.  Some  Dutch  settlers  seem  about 
this  ,time  to  have  established  themselves  on  that  coast. 

The  settlements  west  of  thae  Delaware,  during  the  late 
Ifutch  occupation^  had  been  divided  into  three  judicato- 
ries?  which,  under  the  name  of  counties,  continued  to 
be  kept  up.  T  hey  >  included  a  Dutch  village  at  Hoar- 
kill,  near  the  entrance  of  the  bay,  another  at  Newcastle, 
and  Swedish  villages  at  Christina,  Chester,  and  near  the 
of  Sjohuylkill. 


. 

.     •  .  . .  -'*•• 

PROVIN-CE    OF   NEWYORK.  57 

Exclusive  of  Sagadahoc,   of  these  Delaware   settle-  CHAPTER 

ments,  and  of  the  islands  of  Nantucket  and  Martha's 

Vineyard,  erected  into  fiuke's  county,  the  province  of  1677. 
New.  York  contained  twenty-four  towns  and  villages,  of 
which  the  sixteen  on  Long  Island  were  arranged  in  three 
counties.  The  city  of  New  York,  far  inferior  at  this 
time  to  Boston,  had  about  three  hundred  and  fifty  hous- 
es, and  some  three  thousand  inhabitants.  The  very  cen- 
ter of  the  present  city  was  a  farm  which  had  been  the 
company's,  but  was  now  the  duke's.  The  entire  popu- 
lation of  the  province  amounted  perhaps  to  twelve  or  fif- 
teen thousand.  The  value  of  the  annual  imports  was 
about  £50,000,  $240,000.  The  exports  were  wheat,  to- 
bacco, beef,  pork,  horses,  lumber,  and  peltry.  The  mer- 
cantile fleet  of  the  colony  counted  three  ships*  eight 
sloops,  and  seven  boats.  Even  on  the  Island  of  Man- 
hattan, agriculture  was  the  chief  occupation.  The  man- 
ners of  the  people  were  simple.  There  were  few  servants, 
and  very  few  slaves  ;  yet  the  distinction  of  ranks,  espe- 
cially among  the  Dutch,  was  very  marked.  There  was 
no.  great  good  wiU  between  the  Dutch  inhabitants  and 
the '  immigrants  from  New  England.  The  English 
towns  on  Long  Island  still  cherished  the  hope  of  being 
restored  to  Connecticut,  in  whose  popular  institutions 
they  longed  to  share. 

At  the  peace  between  England  and  Holland,  New 
Jersey  reverted  to  its  English  proprietors  ;   but  Berkeley 
presently  sold  his  share  of  it  for  £1000,  less  than  $5000,  1674. 
to  John  Fenwick,  in  trust  for  himself  and  Edward  Bill- March18- 
ings.    These  purchasers  were  both  Quakers.    The  Quaker 
sect  in  England  had  already  undergone  a  considerable 
transformation.      Grown  more  quiet  and  discreet,  and 
embracing  among  its  converts  a  number  of  merchants 
and  other  men  of  property >  it  was  now  anxious  to  dis- 


58  HISTpR'V-OF   THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  vavow,  under  the  name  of  "  Ranters,"  the  more  violent 

xvii. 
_____  and  turbulent  of  its  members.      George-  Fox,  the  apostle 

1674.  and  founder  of  the  sect,  had  just  returned  from  a  mis- 
sionary tour  through'  the  American  plantations,  and  it 
was,  perhaps,  at  his  suggestion  that  this  purchase  was 
made.    'The  object  sterns  to  have'been  to  provide  a  place 
of  refuge  for  Quakers,  still  every  where  exposed  to  severe 
penal  enactments ;   also,  according  to  a  practice  which 
the  .Quakers  already  -began  to  adopt,  to  combine  worldly 
thrift, with  spiritual  advancement,  by  speculating,  at  the 
same  time,  in  the  foundation  of  a  colony.    A 'dispute  be- 
tween the  new  purchasers  as  to  their  respective  amounts 
of  intetest  was  settled  by  the   arbitration  of  ^William 
Penn,  already  a  sort  of  civil  head  of  the  Quaker  sect. 

The  banks  of  the  Hudson  being  preoccupied,  the 
new  proprietors  turned  their  attention  to  the  Delaware. 
There- seems,  indeed,  from  the  beginning,  to  have  been 
an  understanding  that  the  northern  part  of  the  prov- 
ince should  belong  specially  to  Carteret,  who-,  immedi- 
ately after  the  issue  of  the  duke's  second  charter,  had 
obtained  a  special  regrant  to  himself  of  that  part  of  the 
province.  A  company,  led  by  Fenwick,  to  whom  had 
been  assigned,  as  his  share,  a  tenth  part  of  the  Quaker 

1675.  purchase,  ascended  Delaware  Bay,  and  established  them- 
selves at  its  head,  on  the  east  shore,  near  the  site  of  one 
of  tho  old  Swedish  forts,'  in  a  settlement  which  they 
called  Salem. 

1676.  The  next  year  Carteret  agreed  to  a  formal  partition 
July'     ty  a  line  drawn  from  the  ocean  at  Little  Egg  Harbor  to 

the  ;  northwestern  corner  of  the  province.  The  portion 
-  north  and  east  of  this  line,  known  henceforward  as  East 
New  Jersey r,  became  Carteret's  separate  property,  while 
the  portion  south  and. east  of  it,  known  as  West  New  Jer- 
sey, was  assigned  in  several ty  to  the  Quaker  proprietors. 


EAST  AND  WEST  JERSEY.  59 

Already,  before  this  division,  these  proprietors  had  is-  CHAPTER 
sued,  after  Carteret's  example,  "  Concessions  and  Agree-  ' 

ments"  as,  a  fundamental  law  for  the  colony,  in  which  1676. 
they  promised  freedom  of  conscience,  and  government  by 
an  Assembly.      The  pecuniary  embarrassments  of  Bill- 
ings made 'it  necessary  to  assign  his  share  of  the  prov- 
ince for  the  benefit  of  his  creditors;  and  the  trustees,  of 
whom  Penn  was  one,  with  the  concurrence  of  Fen  wick,  ' 
divided  the  whole  proprietary  right  into  a  hundred  shares, 
of  which  the  ninety  belonging  to  Billings' were' sold  to 
different  individuals,  as  purchasers  offered. 

Two  emigrating  companies,  principally  Quakers,  were 
speedily  organized,. one  in  Yorkshire  and  the  other  in 
London.      Thomas  Olive  and  others  were  sent  out  as 
commissioners  to  superintend  the  colony,  and  Burling-  1677. 
ton,  on  the  Delaware,  was  presently  founded.   /  Jttne- 

The  sachems  of  the  neighboring  Indians,  branches  of 
the  Leni-Lenape,  or  Delawares,  were  assembled  in  coun- 
cil,  and  a  good   understanding  established  with  them.  - 
Additional  emigrants  continued  to  arrive,  and  the  Quak- 
er colony  soon  assumed  a  thriving  appearance. 

In  East  Jersey,  meanwhile,  Philip  Carteret,  on  be-  1675. 
half  of  his  kinsman,  quietly  resumed  the  administration. 
The  colonists  found  it  necessary  to  accept  the  Hew  and 
curtailed  concessions  sent  out  by  the  proprietary.-  The 
second  Assembly — not  counting  the  irregular  one  called 
by  the  anti-quit-rent  insurgents — presently  met,  and  a 
session  was  thenceforward  annually  held.  The  province 
was  divided  into  four  counties,  Bergen,  Essex,  Middle- 
sex, and  Monmouth  ;  and  county  courts  were  established, 
besides  monthly  courts  for  smaller  matters,  to  be  held  in 
the  several  towns; 

There  were  still  some  ebullitions  of  the  old  quarrel 
about  quit-rents.      The    colony  was  also  disquieted  by 


60  vHISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  .claims  of  Andros,  who  .would  not  allow  any  goods 
.,  to  be  landed  on  the  Jersey  shore  till  the  vessels  had  first 
1678.  entered  at  New  York,  and  paid  the  duties  there  exacted 
in  the  duke's  name.  The  people  of  East  Jersey  de- 
nounced this  imptost  as  a  tax  on  immigration ;  but  An- 
dros  successfully  opposed  all  attempts  at  a  direct  trade 
between  that  province  and  England.  Presently  he  went 
so  far  as  to  put  forth,  under  his  commission  from  the 
duke,  a  claim  of  jurisdiction  also.  He  first  summoned 
Garteret  to  forego  the  exercise  of  his  authority  j  and  then 
paid/ him  a  friendly  visit  to  persuade  him  to  do  so. 
These  mild  measures  failing,  he  sent  a  file  of  soldiers, 
who  violently  seized  the  governor  of  East  New  Jersey  in 
his  bed,  carried  him  to  New  York,  and  committed  him 
to  prison.  Andros  summoned  a  special  court,  himself 
being  chief  judge,  for  the  trial  of  his  rival ;  but  the  jury, 
though  hectored  by  the-  governor,  and  twice  sent  back, 
persisted  in  finding  a  verdict  of  acquittal.  Carteret, 
however,  was  detained  in  custody  until  the  matter  could 
be  settled  in  England.  The  Assembly  of  East  Jersey, 
over  which  Andros  assumed  to  preside,  without  passing 
any  judgment  on  his  pretensions  to  the  government,  pre- 
sented to  him  the  "Concessions"  and  existing  laws  for 
ratification,  giving  him  also  to  understand,  in  reply  to 
his  speech,  in  which  he  had  expatiated  on  the  duke's 
charter,  that  it  was  not  "on  the  king's  letters  patent  to 
the  Duke  of  York,"  b.ut  on  "the  Great  Charter  of  En- 
gland,"  that '  they  relied  as  "the  only  rule,  privilege, 
and  joint-safety  of  every  free-born  Englishman." 

Nor  was  it  to  East  Jersey  only  that  the  usurpations 
of  Andros  were  confined.  He  not  only  pretended  that 
the  duke's  authority  extended  over  the  whole  of  Dela- 
ware Bay,  and  that  all  vessels  entering  that  bay  were 
bound  to  pay  duties  to  the  duke's  officers  at  Delaware, 


EAST  AND'.  WEST  JERSEY.  (j  ^ 

but,  following  up  the  doctrine  which  he  bad  carried v  out  CHAPTER 

against- Carteret,  he  denied  any  right  of  jurisdiction  in 

the  -proprietors   of  West  Jersey,   and  there,   as  in  the  16781. 
other  province,  he  assumed  to  act  as  governor. 

'  By  agreement  between  the  Duke  of  York ,  and  the 
Jersey  proprietors,  this  question  of  jurisdiction  was  re- 
ferred to  two  arbitrators,  who  took  the  opinion  of,  Sir  . 
William  Jones,   an   eminent  lawyer   of  that  day,  and 
upon  the  strength  of  it  decided  against  the  duke.      In  1681. 
accordance  with  this  decision,  the  duke  made  a  new  and 
separate  grant  of  West  Jersey  to  the  trustees,  who  ap- 
pointed Billings  to  be  governor.      Jennings,  his  deputy, 
presently  called  the  first  Assembly,  and  that  body  adopt-     Nov. 
ed  certain   "  fundamental  constitutions"  as  a  basis  for 
the  government  of  the  province. 

The  province  of  East  Jersey,  by  the  will  of  Carteret, 
had  passed  to  trustees  for  the  benefit  of  his  creditors, 
widow,  and  heir.  But  the  disputes  about  quit-rents  were 
again  reviving,  and  the  province  seemed  likely  to  prove 
a  troublesome  and  unproductive  piece  of  property.  The 
trustees  having  offered  it  for  sale,  it  was  purchased  by  a  1682. 
company  of  twelve  Quakers,  of  whom  Penn  was  the 
chief.  These  twelve  proprietors  associated  with  them- 
selves twelve  others,  principally  Scotchmen,  several  of 
whom  were  not  Quakers,  but  persons  of  very  different 
principles.  The  twenty-four  obtained  from  the  Duke  of  1683. 
York  a  new  patent  directly  to  themselves.  Robert  Jjar-March13' 
clay,  the  celebrated  apologist  for  the  Quakers,  himself 
one  of  the  proprietors,  was  appointed  governor  for  life ; 
but  he  never  visited  the  province.  Rudyard,  who  came 
over  as  his  deputy,  held  an  Assembly,  at  whioh  the  di- 
vision of  the  colony  into  four  counties  was  confirmed, 
the  concessions  of  the  late  proprietor  renewed,  and  a  code- 
of  laws  enacted.  Upon  some  quarrel  with  the  surveyor  1684. 


62  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

*  *  V      "  . 

CHAPTER  of.  the  province,  Rudyard  was  presently  superseded  by 
•     Gawin  Lawrie,  a  Scotch  Quaker  merchant  of  London, 

1684.  who  Tainly  attempted  to  establish  at  Perth  ^Amboy,  so 
named  after  the  Earl  of  Perth,  one  of  the  Scottish  .pro- 
prietors, a  commercial  town  to  rival  New  York. 

.Thus  connected  as  he  was  both  with  East  and  West 
Jersey,  William  Penn  was  already  employed  in  planting 
on  the  Delaware  a  still  more  important  province  of  his 
own.  Of  Dutch  origin  by  the  mother's  side,  this  remarka- 
ble person  was  the  only  son  of  Admiral  Penn,  corhmander 
of.  the  English  fleet  at  the  conquest  of  Jamaica,  and  dis- 
tinguished in  the  subsequent  Dutch  war.  The  young 

1661.  Penn  had  adopted,  while  a  student  at  Oxford,  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Quakers.  In  manners  mild  and  gentle,  he 
.was  thoroughly  inflexible  of  purpose ;  and  neither  his 
expulsion  from  the  University,  because  he  would  persist 
in  pulling  from  the  backs  of  his  fellow-students  those  pop- 
ish and  unnecessary  badges,  their  gowns,  nor  two  years' 
travels  in  France,  nor  the  severe  discipline  of  his  father, 
who  chastised  him  with  blows,  and  at  one  time  turned 
him  penniless  out  of  doors,  nor  yet  the  friendly  remon- 
strances of  Charles  II.,  made  through  the  sensible  Still- 
ingfleet,  could  shake  him.  On  the  part  of  his  father, 
affection,  soon  triumphed  over  anger  ;  but  the  profession 
of  Quaker  preacher,  and  vindicator,  through  the  press, 
of  Quaker  doctrines,  which  the  young  Penn  adopted,  ex- 
posed him  to  reiterated  persecutions  and  imprisonments. 
Yet  his  high  connections,  the  large  fortune  he  inherited 
from  his  father,  his  remarkable  abilities,  'his  steadiness 
of  purpose  and  evident  sincerity,  did  not  leave  him  with- 
out friends  ;  and  as  he  advanced  in  life,  his  ideas  became 
tempered,  and  his  conduct  modified,  by  a  certain  degree 
of  worldly  prudence^— a  quality  much  more  frequently 
associated  with  religious  enthusiasm  than  is  commonly 
supposed. 


PROVINCE   OF  PENNSYLVANIA,  (53 

Among"  other  property  inherited  from  his  father,  Penn  CHAPTER 
had  a  claim  against  the  government  for  £16^000,  of 
which  ttie  admiral  had  been  plundered  at  the  shutting  1681. 
up  of  the  Exchequer.  To  extract  money  from  Charles 
II.  was  a  difficult  task  ;  Penn  therefore  applied  for  a 
grant  of  American  territory  in  liquidation, of  this  debt. 
This  application,  though  -nominally  opposed,  was,  in  fact, 
supported  by  the  Duke  of  York,  the  late  admiral's  par- 
ticular friend,  and  the  friend  also  of  his  son,  whose  prin- 
ciples of  non-resistance  he  specially  admired.  '  Himself 
belonging  to  a  persecuted  sect,  the  duke  had  some  points 
of  sympathy  with  Ptfnn,  who,  besides,  was  far  from  un- 
skillful in  the  arts  of  a  courtier,  practiced  with  double 
effect  in  the  guise  of  Quaker  plainness. 

After  some  share  of  that  vexation  which  most  suitors 
for  court  favor  or  government  justice  are  doomed  to  ex- 
perience, Penn  succeeded  in  his  suit;  ^ind  in  the  thirty- 
seventh  year  of  his  age  was  constituted,  by  a  royal  charter,  March  4. 
sovereign  of  a  great  American  province  called' PENNSYL- 
VANIA. The  first  syllable  of  that  name  his  Quaker  mod- 
esty would  have  declined,  tut  the  king  insisted  upon  it. 

Penn's  charter,  copied,  with  some  alterations  and  ad- 
ditions, from  that  of  Maryland,  created^him,  "  true  and 
absolute  lord"  of  Pennsylvania,  with  property  in  the  soil, 
and  ample  powers  of  government  ;  but,  as  in  Mary- 
land and  Carolina, .". the  advice'  and  consent  of  the  free- 
men of  the  province"  were  necessary  to  the  enactment  of 
laws.  Some  provisions  were  also  added  not  contained 
in  any  previous  charters,  suggested  by  the  pending  dis- 
putes with  Massachusetts.  A  veta  on  all  colonial  enact- 
ments was  reserved  to  the  crown,  and  to  Parliament -the 
right  to  levy  duties  and  taxes.  Observance,  also,  of  the 
,  laws  of  trade  was  expressly  stipulated,  and  toleration  for 
the  Church  of  England.  .The  proprietary  was  bound 


*'' 


64  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

> 
CHAPTER  to  have  am  agent  always  at  court  ready  to  answer  com- 

plaints.     He  had  the  power  of  erecting  courts  of  justice, 

1661.  Slaving  an  appeal  to  the  crown — this  latter,  also,  a  new 
provision,  which  recent  experience  had  shown  to  be  nec- 
essary. Not  very  consistently  with  the  Quaker  princi- 
ples of  Penn — as>  indeed,  how  could  his  undertaking  to 
be  lord  proprietor  &$  all  be  reconciled  with  those  princi- 
ples^— his  charter  contained  the  usual  clauses,  empower- 
ing him  to  levy  troops,  to  make  war,  to  pursue  his  en- 
emies by  sea  and  land,  even  beyond  the  limits  of  his 
province,  "and,  by  God's  assistance,  to  vanquish  and 
take  them."  However  scrupulous  he  might  be  in  his 
closet,-  Penn  was  of  too  active  a  temperament,  and  a 
casuist  far  too  ingenious,  to  sacrifice  to  'his  scruples  the 
sovereignty  of  a  province. 

"Within  the  limits;  of  Pennsylvania,  at  the  time  of 
its  erection,  quite  a  number  of  settlements  already  ex- 
isted, some  of  them  of  ancient  date.  Besides  Swedes 
and  Dutch,  old  occupants  of  the  mouth  of  the  Schuyl- 
kill,  some  English  had  already  settled  along  the  west 
bank  of  the  Delaware,  under  grants  from  the  governors 
April  2.  of  New  York.  A  royal  proclamation,  announcing  to 
these  settlers  the  recent  grant  to  Penn,  was  sent  out  by 
the  hand  of  his  relation,  William  Markham,  authorized 
to  arrange  boundaries  with  Lord  Baltimore,  and  bearer 
April  8.  also  of  a  proclamation  from,  Penn  himself,  in  which  he 
assured  his  new  subjects  that  they  should  "  live  free  un- 
der laws  of  their  own  making." 

May.  Meanwhile,  in  Ehgland,  proposals  were  published  for 
the  sale  of  lands  at  the  rate  of  forty  shillings,  about  $10, 
the  hundred  acres — subject,  however,  to  a  perpetual  quit- 
rent  of  one  shilling  for  every  hundred-acre  grant,  or  about 
.  two  mills  and  a  half  the  acre  ;  the  purchasers  also  to 
have  lots  in  a  city  to  be  laid  out.  On  the  basis  of  these 


. 

. 


PROVINCE    OF    PENNSYLVANIA.  5  £ 

/  *  * 

proposals,  an  agreement  was  soon  signed  between  Penn  CHAPTER 

and  certain  adventurers,  calling  themselves  the  Company  _  __ 
of  Free  Traders,  and  three  vessels  with  emigrants  speed-  1681, 
ily  set  sail,  with  three  commissioners  on  board,  a  plan  ^?  •11- 
of  the  proposed  city,  and  a  friendly  letter  from  Penn  to 
the  Indians,  in  which  he  addressed  them,  not  as  heathen^ 
but  as  brethren  —  a  new  feature  in  the  history  of  Anglo- 
American  intercourse.     One  of  these  vessels  was  blown 
off  to  the  West  Indies,  another  was  frozen  up  in  the 
Delaware. 

,  Early  the  next  year  Penn  published  a  "  Frame  of  1682. 
Government,"  which,  "  for  the  matter  of  liberty  and  APnl 
privilege,"  he  pronounced  "  extraordinary,"  leaving  to 
himself  and  his  successors  "no  power  of  doing  mischief 
—  that  the  will  of  one  man  may  not  hinder  the  good 
of  the  whole  country."  The  proposal  of  laws  and  the 
executive  authority,  according  to  this  frame,  were  to  be  ' 
vested  in  9,  council  of  seventy-two  persons,  elected  by 
the  freemen  for  three  years,  one  third  to  go  out  annually  ; 
the  proprietary  or  his  deputy  to  preside,  and  to  enjoy  a 
triple  vote.  Laws  thus  proposed,  after  due  publication, 
were  to  be  submitted  for  approval  or  rejection  to  an  As- 
sembly, at  first  of  all  the  freemen,  but  afterward  of  del- 
egates, never  more  than  five  hundred,  nor  less  than  .two 
hundred.  To  this  frame  of  government  were  subjoined 
forty  "  fundamental  laws,"  agreed  upon  by  Penn  and 
the  intended  emigrants. 

In  consequence,  it  is  probable,  of  information  from 
Markham,  of  which  more  will  presently  be  said,  Penn 
obtained  from  the  Duke  of  York  a  quit-claim  to  Penn-  Aug.  21. 
sylvania  ;  also  two  deeds  of  feoffment,  one  .  of  the  town 
of  Newcastle,  with  a  circle  twelve  miles  round  it,  the 
other  of  the  district  thence  to  Cape  Henlopen.  Though 
not  included,  in  the  Duke  of  York's  charter,  these  terri- 
II.—  E 


66  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

tories  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Delaware  bad  t>een  claim- 


XVII 

ed  by  his,  governors  as  appurtenant  to  the  province  of 

1682.  New.  York  ;  and,  in  his  conveyance  to  Penn,  he  still  re- 
served to  himself  one  half  the  rents  and  profits. 

All  preliminaries  thus  arranged,  Penn  set  sail,  accom- 
panied by  a  hundred  emigrants,  and  preceded  and  fol- 
v  Jo  wed  by  many  more.  Twenty -three  ships  sailed  for 
Pennsylvania  this  year,  all  of  which  arrived  in  safety. 
Penn  himself  had  a  tedious  and  distressing  passage. 
The  small-pox  broke  out  in  the  ship,  and  thirty  of  the 
Oct.  27.  passengers  died  on  the  voyage.  He  landed  at  Newcas- 
tle, and,  after  renewing  the  commissions  of  the  magis- 
trates, and  receiving  the  greetings  of  those  who  flocked 
to  meet  him,  proceeded  up  the  broad,  majestic  Delaware 
to  Upland,  or  Chester.  He  found  already  settled  in  the 
province  and  territories,  the  distinctive  names  by  which 
Pennsylvania  and  the  three  lower  counties  on  the  Dela- 
ware became  presently  known,  two  or  three  thousand 
inhabitants,  "  a  plain,  strong,  industrious  people,"  with 
six  religious  societies,  three  of  Swedish  Lutherans,  and 
three  of  Quakers ;  "  the  land  good,  the  air  clear  and 
•  sweet,  the  springs  plentiful,  and  provisions  good  and  easy 
to  come  at ;  an  innumerable  quantity  of  wild  fowl  and 
fish  ;  in  fine,  what  an  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  would 
be. well  contented  with."  On  Pennsbury  Manor,  opposite 
Burlington,  Markham  had  already  commenced  the  erec- 
tion of  a  stately  brick  house  for  a  proprietary  dwelling. 
Having  .paid  a  visit  to  New  Jersey,  New  York,  and 
Dec.  4.  Long  Island,  Penn  presently  returned  to  Chester,  and 
there  met,  in  a  three  days'  session,  the  first  Assembly  of 
the  province.  To  the  three  lower  counties  on  the  Dela- 
ware there  seems  to  have  been  already  added  three  oth- 
ers, embracing  the  settlements  higher  up  the  river.  In- 
stead of  the  whole  body  of  freemen  in  person,  as  the 


PROVINCE   OF   PENNSYLVANIA.  67 

. 
frame  of  government  had  proposed,  and  Penri's  writ  of  CHAPTER 

summons  had  requested,  there  came  from  each  of  these  ^ '. 

six  counties  twelve  delegates — only  enough  to  constitute  1682. 
the  council — with  a  petition  that  the  number  thus  sent 
might  serve  both  for  council  and  Assembly  ;  assigning 
for  reason  "the  fewness  of  the  people,-  their  inability  in 
estate,  and  unskillfulness  in  matters  of  government,"    . 

An  "  act  of  settlement''  was  accordingly  passed,  con- 
stituting eighteen  of  these  delegates  a  council,  and  the 
remainder  an  Assembly.  But  in  future  the  Assembly  ' 
was  to  consist  of  thirty-six  members  only,  six  from  each 
county,  to  be  chosen  annually,  with  a  council  composed 
of  three  members  for  each  county,  to  hold  their  seats  for 
three  years,  one  to  be  chosen  each  year.  The  restriction 
of  the  governor  to  three  votes  was  dropped.  The  gov- 
ernor and  council  were  to  possess  jointly  the  right  of 
proposing  laws.  In  this  quiet  way  the  proprietary  re- 
gained that  power  of  controlling,  by  his  single  will,  the  • 
legislation  of  the  province,  which  his  original  frame  had 
disclaimed,  but  without  which,  as  h&  had  already  dis- 
covered, his  authority  would  soon  become  -  the  merest 
shadow.  According  to  Penn's  account,  this  modifica- 
tion was  made  by  the  spontaneous  movement,  and  at 
the  special  request  of  the  Assembly,  fearful  lest  in  their 
ignorance  they  might  enact  laws  forbidden  by  the  char- 
ter, and  might  thus  work  its  forfeiture.  It  is  reasona- 
ble, however,  to  presume,  that,  on  second  thought,  he 
himself  had  seen  and  suggested  the  expediency  of  an  al- 
teration, angrily  charged  upon  him  some  twenty  years 
after  as  having  been  obtained  by  his  own  overwhelming 
influence,  and  in  violation  of  his  original  promise. 

An  "  act  of  union"  made  the  recently  purchased  ter- 
ritories a  part  of  the  province.      Another  act  naturalized 


(58  HIS,TORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  Dutch  and  Swedish  settlers,  placing  them  on  the 

XVII 

__same  footing  with  the  English. 

1682.  A.  code,  called  the  "  Great  Law,"  was  also  enacted, 
compiled,  for  the'  most  part,  from  the  forty  articles 
agreed  upon  in  England,  but  with  some  additions.  Thi* 
code  gave  -the  rights  of  "  freemen,"  that  is.  of  voting  and 
being  elected  to  office,  to  every  freeholder  and  tax-payer  ; 
but  "faith  in  Jesus  Christ"  was  required  as  an  addi- 
tional qualification.  '  Toleration '  was  secured  to  "^all 
persons  who  confess  and  acknowledge  the  one  Almighty 
and  eternal  God  to  be  the  creator,  upholder,  and  ruler 
of  the  world,  and  that  hold  themselves  obliged  in  con- 
science to  live  peaceably  and  justly  in  civil  society." 
None  such  were  to  be  «  molested  or  prejudiced  for  their 
religious  persuasion,  or  practice  in  matters  of  faith  and 
worship;  nor  shall  they  be  compelled,  at  any  ti^me,  to 
frequent  or  maintain  any  religious  worship,  place,  or 
ministry  whatever."  Yet  the  very  nex.t  provision,  with 
an  inconsistency  of  which  examples  are  sufficiently  nu- 
merous, proceeded  to  interfere  with  "practice  in  matters 
of  worship,"  by  requiring  all  to  abstain  from  their  com- 
mon daily  labor  "  every  first  day  of  the  week,  called  the 
Lord's,  Day .;' ,  Nor  was  this  promised  toleration  extend- 
ed to  Catholics,  at  least  in  the  early  days  of  the  colony. 
In  the  list  of  offenses  to  be  expressly  discouraged  and 
severely  punished  are  enumerated  "  drinking  healths, 
prizes,  stage  plays,  cards,  dice,  May-games,  masques, 
revels  ;"  but  the  criminal  code,  on  the  whole,  was  exceed- 
ingly mild,  only  murder  being  punishable  with  death. 
County  tjourts  were  established  for  the  administration  of 
justice,  with  trial  by  jury.  The  right  of  primogeniture 
was  partially  abrogated.  The  eldest  son,  instead  of  in- 
heriting all  his 'father's  lands,  was  to  have,  as  in  New 
England,  only  a  double  share.  It  was  provided,  in  con- 


PROVINCE   OF  PENNSYLVANIA.  39 

\       '  "     * 

elusion,  that  these  laws  should  be  printed '  and  taught  in  CHAPTER 

, ,  xvii. 

the  schools.  

Having  thus  established  a  government  for  his  pfov-  1682. 
ince,  the  Quaker,  sovereign  hastened  to  Newcastle  to 
meet  Lord  Baltimore,  with  whom  had  arisen  a,  delicate 
question  of  bounds.  The  charter  of  Maryjand  assigned 
"  the  fortieth  degree  of  north  latitude,  where  New  En- 
gland is  terminated,"  as  the  northern  boundary  of  that 
province.  Pennsylvania  was  to  begin  on  the  Delaware, 
'  twelve  miles  above  Newcastle,  and  thence  to  extend  by 
the  course  df  that  river  to  "  the  beginning  of  the  forty- 
third  degree  of  north  latitude."  It  was  to  have  a  breadth 
of  five  degrees  of  longitude ,"  and  for  a  southern  boundary, 
the  arc  of  a -circle  of  twelve  miles  radius,  drawn  from 
Newcastle  as  a  center,  "  northward  and  westward  unto 
the  beginning  of  the  fortieth  degree  of  latitude,"  along 
wfrich  parallel  the  boundary  was  to  run..  It  has  been 
alleged  by  Proud  and  other  historians,  that  Penn's  char- 
ter, included  three  degrees  of  latitude,  having  for  its 
southern  boundary  the  thirty-ninth  degree,  where,  ac- 
cording to  this  construction,  the  fortieth  degree  began". 
Such  a  pretense  was  indeed  set  up  in  the  answer  filed 
years  after  Penn's  death,  in  the  suit  by  which  the  bound- 
aries of  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania  were  finally  determ- 
ined. But  this  construction  is  not  sustained  either  by 
the  words  of  the  charter  or  by  any  claims  ever  ttiade  by 
Penn  himself.,  In  spite  of  its  affected  precision,  Penn's 
charter  is  ambiguous ;  it  would  seem,  however,  to  have 
intended  by  the  phrases  "  beginning  of  the  fortieth*'  and 
"beginning  of  the  forty-third,"  that  part  of  those  de- 
grees first  reached,  in.  the  one  case  from  the  north,  by 
the  curve  to  be  drawn  northward  and  westward  from 
Newcastle  ;  in  the  other  case  from  the  south,  by  the  as- 
cent of  the  Delaware.  No.other  construction  is  consist- 


70  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  ent  either  -yvith  the  Maryland  charter,  the  supposed  state 

XVII 

of  facts  when  Penn's  charter  wa's  granted,  or  with  the 
1682.  claims  which  he  himself  set  up  in  his  interview  with  Lord 
Baltimore.  It  had  been  hitherto  supposed,  and  Penn's 
•  charter  proceeded  on  that  supposition,  that  the  fortieth 
degree  of  north  latitude  crossed  the  head  of  Delaware 
Bay  in  the  vicinity  of  Newcastle.  But  when  Markham 
and  Baltimore,  in  obedience  to  the  royal -tetter  brought 
out  by  Markham,  met,  previous  to  Penn's  arrival,  to 
settle  and  mark  the  boundaries,  much  to  the  ^surprise  of ' 
both  parties,  it  had  been  discovered,  by  some  astronom- 
ical observations  then  taken,  that  the  fortieth  degree 
crossed  the  Delaware  above  the  junction  of  the  Schuyl- 
kill.  Upon  this  discovery,  Markham  refused  to  proceed 
any  further  in  running  the  boundary.  Penn,  informed 
of  it  before  Ijis  embarkation,  had  taken  care  to  procure 
the  above-mentioned  deeds  from  the  Duke  of  York,  and 
from  the  king  a  letter  to  Lord  Baltimore,  in  which  he 
was  infprmed,  first,  that  his  province  included  only  two 
degrees  of  latitude,  to  be  measured  from  Watkins's 
Point,  on  the  east  shore  of  the  Chesapeake,  opposite  the 
mouth  of  the  Potomac :  and,  secondly,  that  these  two 
degrees  were  to  be  reckoned  as  containing  only  sixty 
miles  each,  such  being  the  estimate  of  the  extent  of  a 
degree  prevalent  when  Lord  Baltimore's  province  was 
granted. 

*  The  two  proprietaries  having  met,  and  being  both 
seated  at  the  same  table  .with  their  respective  members 
of  council,  Penn  produced  the  king's  letter,  which  was 
read,  first  privately,  and  then  publicly.  But  the  char- 
ter of  Maryland  said  nothing  about  two  degrees.  It 
distinctly  fixed  the  northern  boundary  of  that  province  at 
the  fortieth  degree  of  north  latitude.  Baltimore  treated 
with  a  disregard  quite  shocking  to  the  loyalty  of  Penn 


PROVINCE   OF  PENNSYLVANIA.  71 

.  \  •  A 

c 

this  attempt  to  set  aside  the  express  tenor  of  a  solemn  CHAPTER 

grant,  by  a  private  letter  from  the  king,  obtained  it  did., 

not  appear  by  what  means.  He  even  presumed  to  say,  1682. 
in  the  presence  of  the  assembled  councils,  "that  the  king 
was  greatly  mistaken;  that  he  would  not  leave  his  pat- 
ent to  follow  the  king's  letter,  nor  could  a  letter  void  his 
patent ;  by  that  he  would  stand  ;"  and  he  called  for  a 
survey.  It  does  not  appear  that  Lord  Baltimore  denied 
that  the  two  deeds  of  feoffment  from  the  Duke  of  York 
might  convey  to  Penn,  notwithstanding  the  Maryland; 
charter,  an  interest  in  the  tract  about  Newcastle,  and 
the  shore  of  the  Delaware  south  of  it,  though  the  duke 
himself  had  no  grant,  and  no  title  except  mere  posses- 
sion. But  these  conveyances  did  not  touch  the  district 
between  the  fortieth  degree  of  north  latitude  and  the 
curve  to  be  drawn  about  Newcastle. 

Finding  the  limitation  of  two  degrees  so  unpalatable, 
Penn  offered  to  allow  Lord  Baltimore  as -many  degrees 
as  there  might;  be  from  Watkins's  Point  to  the  fortieth, 
to  be  measured,  however,  on  the  scale  of  sixty  miles  to 
a  degree,  the  second  proposition  in  the  king's  letter. 
As  every  degree  contained,  in  fact,  about  seventy  miles'^ 
Penn's  design  was  to  carry  his  boundary. in  this  way 
some  twenty  miles  or  more  within  the  chartered  limits 
of  Maryland.  .  But  neither  to  this  would  Lord  Balti- 
more hearken.  "  I  told  him,n  says  Penn,  "  it  was  not 
the  love  or  need  of  the  land,  but  the  water  ;  that  he 
abounded  in  what  I  wanted,  access  and  harboring,  even 
to  excess ;  that  I  would  not  be  thus  importunate  but  • 
for  the  importance  of  the  thing,  to  save  a  province ;  and 
because  there  was  no  proportion  in  the  concern ;  if  I 
were  a  hundred  times  more  urgent  and  tenacious,  the 
case  would  excuse  it,  because  the  thing  insisted  on  was 
more  than  ninety-nine  times  more  valuable  to  me  than 


72  HISTORY.  OF    THE   UNITE  D  .  ST.A  TE  S. 

CHAPTER  to  him;r  to  me^the  head,  to  him  the  tail."     But  this 

XVII 

sort 'of  reasoning,  to  which,  indeed,  when  Subsequently 
1682*. -urged  against  himself  by  his  own  tenants,  Penn  did  not 
seem  to  attach  much  weight,  weighed  just  as  little  with 
Lord  Baltimore. 

The  negotiation  was  carried  on^  with  much  warmth 
and  some  art  on  both  sides,  since  Penn  complains  that 
Baltimore,  unknown  to  him,  had  a  reporter  present  to 
take  down  all  that  Was  said.  ;  The  proprietaries  parted 
-  without  coming  to  any  conclusion,  intending  to  meet  again 
in  the  spring. 

Penn  had  been  offered  a  considerable  sum  before  leav- 
ing England  for  a  share  of  his  province  and  a  monopoly 
of  the  Indian  traffic,  but  had  preferred  to  found  a  free 
company  for  that  trade,  in  which  all  the  colonists  that 
chose  were  at  liberty  to  become  partners.  This  Indian 
traffic,  however,  was  of  very  little  consequence.  Far  in 
the  interior,  on  the  upper  waters  of  the  Delaware  and 
along  the  Susquehanna,  were  some  considerable  Indian 
villages,  allies  or  tributaries  of 'the  Five  Nations,  but 
;the  tribes  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  lower  Delaware  were 
few  and  feeble.  With  these  Indians,  branches  of  the 
Leni-Lenape,  or  Delaware  confederacy,  treaties  were 
held.  Lands  were  purchased  of  them,  and  peace  and 
friendship  established*  The  famous  traditionary  treaty 
under  the  gfeat  elm  of  Shakamaxon,  commemorated  by 
the  pencil  of  West,  took  place,  it  seems  probable,  not 
long  after  the  interview  with  Lord  Baltimore.  ''  Penn's 
Indian  policy  has  been  much  and  justly  praised.  But, 
ill  contrasting  it  with  that  of  New  England  and  Virginia, 
we  must  not  forget  the  comparative  feebleness  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Indians,  the  peaceful  character  of  the  Del- 
awares,  whom  the  Five  Nations  had  compelled  to  ac- 
knowledge themselves  women,  and  the  cover  afforded  to 


'.     PROVINCE   OF   PENNSYLVANIA.    .,  73 

the  new  colony  by  older  settlements,  both,  oil  the  north  CHAPTER 

XVH 

and  the  south.  '  ,  " 

Having  obtained  of  the  Swedish  settlers  .who- claimed  1683. 
it,  by  the  promise  of  other  lands,  the  tract -at  the  con-' 
fluence  of  the  Schuylkill  and  the  Delaware,  in:  spite  of 
the  pretensions  of  Lord  Baltimore,  Penn  proceeded  to 
lay  out  his  city  of  PHILADELPHIA,  so  called  in  allusion  to 
that  brotherly  love  which  the  sect  of  Quakers  professed 
and  advocated.      Buildings  were  at  once  commenced  ; 
settlers  from  England  were  now  fast  arriving;   and  by' 
the  end  of  the  year,  eighty  houses  were  erected. 

Before  such  conveniences  were  provided,  and  while  March, 
some  of  the  new  comers  still  lodged  in  caves  dug  in  the 
sandy  banks  of  the  Delaware,  Penn  summoned  his  newly 
constituted  Legislature  to  meet  him  at  the  new  city. 
This  Assembly  accepted  a  frame  of  government  modeled 
in  accordance  with  the  late  act  of  settlement,  and  in- 
cluding a  proviso,  copied  from  the  first  frame,  that  no 
change  should  be  made  in  it  except  by  the  joint  consent 
of  the  proprietary  and  six  parts  in  seven  of  the  freemen 
of  the  province. 

Orphan  courts  were  established  for  administering  the 
estates  of  deceased  persons ;  county  affairs  were  regu- 
lated ;  and  for  the  settlement  of  disputes  and  prevention 
of  law-suits,,  three  "  peace-makers"  were  appointed  for 
each  •  county.  A  revenue  was  also  voted  to  the  proprie- 
tary, to  be  raised  by  a  duty  on  imports  and  exports  ;  but 
upon  a  "consideration  engaged  by  several  merchants," 
Penn  suspended  the  receipt  of  it  for  a  year  or  ,two,  and 
presently  lost  it  altogether. 

The  Assembly  of  the  next  year  voted  £2000  toward  1684. 
the  expenses  of  the  government,  to  be  raised  by  an  im- 
post on  spirits. 

At  his  manor  of  Pennsbury,  on  the  Delaware,  oppo- 


74  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED    STATES. 

t  .  ) 

CHAPTER  site  Burlington,  some  twenty  miles-  above  Philadelphia, 

a  large  mansion  house  had  been  erected  for  the  proprie- 

1683.-  tary  residence.  "  Oh  !  how  sweet  is  the  quiet  of  these 
parts !"  exclaimed  Penn,  "  freed  from  the  anxious  and 
troublesome  solicitations,  hurries,  and  perplexities  of  woe- 
ful Europe."  But  his  active  spirit  quickly  wearied  of 
quiet',  and  to  "  woeful  Europe"  he  soon  returned,  called 
thither,  as  he  Alleged,  by  the  pressure  of  his  affairs,  and  the 
necessity  of  looking  after  his  dispute  with  Lord  Baltimore. 
May.  A  second  interview  between  the  two  proprietaries  had 
ended  in  a  downright  quarrel.  Penn  offered  to  proceed 
with  Baltimore  in  search  of  the  fortieth  degree,  and  to 
accept  it  as  the  boundary,  provided  he  would  first  fix 
"  a  gentlemanly  price"  for  the  tract  from  the  head  of 
the  Chesapeake  northward,  "  so  much  per  mile  in  case 
I  should  have  no  part  of  the  bay  by  latitude,  that  so  I 
might  have  a  back  port  to  this  province."  Baltimore 
would  not  sell,  but  offered  to  exchange  a  part  of  Chesa- 
peake Bay  for  the  thrfce  lower  counties.  Penn,  how- 
ever,, "did  not  prize  the  thing  at  such  a  rate."  Balti- 
more had  already  sent  home'  to  the  Plantation  Commit- 
tee of  the  Privy  Council  an  account  of  the  conference 
between  him  and  Penn.  He  also  put  forth  an  offer  to  sell 
lands  at  reduced  prices  on  the  shores  of  Delaware  Bay, 
Sept.  .and  ha  presently  sent  George  Talbot  te  make  a  formal 
demand  on  Penn  for  all  the  land  on  the  west  side  of  the 
Schuylkill  south  of  the  fortieth  degree  of  latitude.  Penn 
'  set  up,  in  reply  to  this  demand,  the  title  of  the  Duke  of 
York,  "  a  prince,  doubtless,  of  too  much  honor  to  keep 
.  any  man's  right,  and  of  too  great  resolution  to  deliver 
.  up  his  own."  '"'He  is  lord,  and  I  am  tenant ;  of  him  I 
hold,  and  to  him  I  pay  my  rent,  and  for  him  I  improve 
as  well  as  myself,  whose  example  I  am  resolved  to  fol- 
low." At  &e  same  time,  besides  a  formal  reply  to  Bal- 


PROVINCE'OF  PENNSYLVANIA.  75 

timore's  appeal  to  the  Privy  Council,  he  took  care  to  CHAPTER 

xvji 
strengthen  his  interest  by  letters  to  North,  Halifax,  and 

Rochester,  in  which  he  urged  the  prior  Dutch  possession  1683. 
as  fatal  to  Baltimore's  claim,  and  represented  Balti- 
more's insisting  upon  the  tenor  of  his  grant  as  an  at- 
tempt to  steal  "his  poor  ewe  lamb."  "He  hath  two 
hundred  miles  on  both  sides  of  the  bravest  bay  in  the- 
world,  while  I  have  but  one  side  of  an  inferior  one,  and 
none  at  all,  it  seems,  if  he  would  have  his  will,  to  the 
ruin  of,  perhaps,  the  most  prosperous  beginning  in  Amer- 
ica. I  have  but  two  creeks  that  ships  of  two  hundred  ^. 
tons  can  enter  ;  he  has  forty  and  to  spare  .that  ships  of 
five  hundred  tons  can  enter  and  ride  in." 

With  respect  to  the  Dutch  title  to  the  banks  of  the 
Delaware,  however  strong  that  claim  might  have  been 
in  the  mouths  of  the  Dutch,  yet  how  could  the  Duke  of 
York,  or  any  claiming  under  him,  set  up  a  title  which 
the  very  grant  of  the  province  of  New  York  presumed 
to  be  invalid  ? 

So  long  as  Penn  remained  in  the  colony,  he  had  act- 
ed with  his  council  as  the  supreme  court  of  law.      Just 
before  his  departure,  he  established  for  that  purpose  a  1684. 
provincial  court  of  five  judges,  with  Nicholas  Moore  for    Ajlg 
chief  justice. .    The  executive  administration  was  com- 
mitted to  the-  council,  of  which  Thomas  Lloyd,  one  df 
the  principal  Quaker  settlers,  was  appointed  president, 
and  Markham  secretary. 

At  Perm's  departure  the  province  already  contained 
twenty  settled  townships,  and  seven  thousand  inhabit- 
ants. Quaker  immigrants  flowed  in  from  England  and 
Wales.  Some  Dutch  and  German  Quakers  also  arrived, 
converts  made  by  Penn  and  Barclay,  some  years  before, 
during  a  tour  on  the  Continent.  It  was  by  a  party  of 
these  German  Quakers  that  Germantown  was  settled. 


\ 


76  HISTOJIV   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

(  HAPTER       Andros,  meanwhile,  recalled  from  New  York  to  an- 
xvir  > 

'  ,  swer  the  complaints  alleged  against  him  by  the  proprie- 

J.68Q.  taries  of  the  Jerseys,  had  left  the  administration  of  that 
province  in  the  hands  of  Anthony  Brockholst.  The  peo- 
ple of.  New  York,  with  Connecticut  on  the  one  side  and 
the  Jerseys ,  on  the  other,  looked  with  longing  eyes  at 
the  popular  institutions  by  which  they  were  surrounded, 
'  and  grew  more  and  more  discontented  at  being  allowed 
no  share  in  legislation  or  the  imposition  of  taxes. 

The  legality  of  taxes  imposed  by  the  sole  authority 
of  the  duke's  officers  began  to  be  questioned.  The  grand 
jury  .of  New  York  even  went  so  far  as  to  indict  Dyer, 
the  duke's  collector,  for  constructive  high  treason  in  lev- 
ying taxes -without  authority.  A  special  court  was  or- 
ganized, to  try  him ;  but  Dyer  insisted  that  his  author- 
ity as  collector  was  quite  as  good  as  that  of  his  judges, 
to  wit,  the  duke's  commission ;  and,  as  it  did  not  seem 
easy  to  answer  that  argument,  they  sent  him  to  England 
for  trial.  Having  thus  got  rid  of  the  collector,  no  accuser 
saw  £t  to  appeal-. 

Doubts,  however,  were  expressed  even  in  England  as 
to  the  duke's  right  to  levy  taxes  by  his  own  mere  au- 
thority. The  council,  the  Court  of  Assize,  and  the  cor- 
poration of  New  York,  all  joined  in  soliciting  the  pro- 
prietary "  to  allow  the  people  to  participate  in  the  mak- 
ing of  laws."  Penn  gave,  it  is  said,  the  same  advice ; 
and,  after  some  negotiations,  for  the  sake  of  giving  va- 
lidity to  a  tax  bill  which  it  was  tacitly  agreed  should  be 

16,83.  passed,  Thomas  Dongan  was  sent  out  as  governor,  with 
instructions  to  call  an  Assembly. 

Oct.  17.  This  first  Assembly  of  New  York  consisted,  besides 
the  governor  and  the  ten  counselors,. of  seventeen  deputies 
elected  by  the  freeholders..  Besides  passing  the  stipulated 
tax  bill,  a  declaration  of  rights  was  also  adopted,  claim- 


PROVINCE    OF  NEW   YORK. 


7.7 


ing,  among  other  things,  that  no  tax  ought  to  be/  assessed  CHAPTER 

except  by  consent  of  the  Assembly.     The  colony  was  di- 

vided  into  twelve  counties,  New  York,  Richmond,  King's,  1683. 
Queen's,  Suffolk,  Orange,  Ulster,  Albany,  "Westchester, 
Dutchess,  Duke's  county,  and  Cornwall.      But  the  last 
two  were  presently  detached  from  the  province.- 

After  the  Assembly  had  adjourned,  Dongan,  with  his 
council,  met  the  governor  and  council  of  Connecticut, 
and  settled  the  boundary  line  between  the  two  provinces, 
much  as  it  now  runs. 

Another  Assembly  met  the  next  year  to  explain  some  1684. 
disputed  points  of  the  tax  act ;  but,  after  the  accession 
of  the  Duke  of  York  to  the  throne,  no  new  Assembly  was 
called.  Dongan,  in  his  renewed  commission,  was  au-  1685. 
thorized,  with  his  council,  to  enact  laws,  to  continue  ex- 
isting taxes,  and  to  impose  new  ones.  Like  Effingham, 
his  cotemporary  in  Virginia,  he  was  specially  instructed 
to  allow  no  printing.  Though  "  a  man  of  integrity, 
moderation,  and  genteel  manners,"  the  governor  was  a 
"  professed  papist,"  a  very  terrible  thing  in  the  estima- 
tion of  the  colonists,  for,  in  their  minds,  the  ideas  of 
papacy  and  tyranny  were  indissolubly  connected. 

Dongan  gave  a  city  charter  to  Albany.  To  Robert 
Livingston,  a  Scotch  immigrant,  connected  by  marriage 
with  the  families  of  Rensselaer  and  Schuyler,  he  granted 
a  feudal  principality  on  the  Hudson,  known  as  Living- 
ston Manor,  commencing  some  five  miles  below  the  pres- 
ent city  of  Hudson,  running  twelve  miles  on  the  east 
bank  of  the  river,  and  back,  with  increasing  breadth,  to 
the  Massachusetts  line.  Livingston  himself  played  a  con- 
spicuous part  in  the  province,  and  became  the  founder  of 
a  family  eminent  in  our  history. 

To  the  re-establishment  of  episcopacy  in  Scotland  t)ie 
great  body  of  Presbyterians^  had  quietly  submitted ;  but 


78  HISTORY   OF    THE.UNITEI>  STATES. 

CHAPTER  a  "small  minority,  known  as  Camcronians  and  Covenant- 
ors, -still  stood  out,,  and  were  subjected,  in  consequence, 
1683.  to  a  severe  persecution,  whence  resulted  occasional  insur- 
rections. The  Earl  of  Perth  and  Lord  Drummond,  two 
of  the  proprietaries  of  East  New  Jersey,  in  their  charac- 
ter as  members  of  the  Privy  Council  for  Scotland,  took 
a  very  active  part  in  the  severe  proceedings  against  the 
Covenanters.  But,  like  Clarendon  and  others  of  that 
day,  however  strenuous  for  conformity  at  home,  they  seem 
not  to  have  objected  to  toleration  in  the  colonies.  Efforts 
were  made,  not  without  success,  to  induce  these  perse- 
cuted people  to  emigrate  to  East  Jersey,  which  became, 
in  consequence,  the  cradle  of  Presbyterianism  in  America. 
About  the  time  that  Lord  Cardross  emigrated  to  Caro- 
lina, Lord  Niel  Campbell,  brother  of  the  Duke  of  Argyle, 
compromised  by  some  insurrectionary  movements,  came 
out  as  governor  of  the  colony  of  East  Jersey.  But  he 
returned  home  the  next  year,  leaving  Andrew  Hamilton 
as  his  deputy.  Among  the  original  planters  of  New 
Jersey  were  Dutch  colonists,  Puritans  from  New  En- 
gland, English  Quakers,  and  Scotch  Presbyterians  ;  and 
indications  of  this  various  origin  are  still  very  obvious 
among  the  present  inhabitants. 

1685.  The  Quaker  proprietor  of  Pennsylvania  continued  to 
enjoy  under  James  II.  the  same  favor  bestowed  upon  him 
by  the  Duke  of  York.  The  charter  of  Pennsylvania 
was  the  only  one  in  America  against  which  a  Quo  War- 
ranto  was  not  issued. 

Nov.  In  the  controversy  with  Lord  Baltimore,  the  Privy 
Council  assigned  to  Penn  half  the  territory  between  the 
Delaware  and  the  Chesapeake,  north  of  the  latitude  of 
Cape  Henlopen.  The  boundary  further  west,  as  yet  of 
little  consequence,  was  left  to  be  settled  when  occasion 
„  might  require.  This  decision,  however,  was  very  far 


PROVINCE  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 


79 


from  ending  the  dispute.      The  cape  to  which  the.  name  CHAPTER 
of  Henlopen  properly  belonged,  and  the  middle  line  be- .. 
tween  the  Chesapeake  and  the  Delaware,  remained  un-  1686. 
determined  till  long  after  the  deaths  both  of  Baltimore 
and  Penn.  .  , 

Though  Penn  kept  the  favor  of  his  sovereign,  he  was 
near  losing  the  good  will  of  his  colonists.  The  Assem- 
bly, discontented  at  its  subordinate  position,  assumed  the 
right  of  suggesting  laws,  which  the  frame  had  reserved 
to  the  governor  and  council ;  and,  like  all  such  bodies, 
struggled  continually  to  enlarge  its  powers.  Moore,  the 
chief  justice,  a  member  also  of  the  Assembly,  opposed 
these  pretensions ;  but  he  was  met  by  an  accusation  of 
arbitrary  conduct  in  office  ;  was  expelled  the  Assembly, 
and  impeached  ;  and  the  secretary  of  his  court,  upon 
refusing  to  give  up  the  records,  was  committed  to  pris- 
on. Penn  interfered  to  put  a  stop  to  these  violent  pro- 
ceedings ;  and,  little  satisfied  with  the  conduct  of  the 
council,  which  he  accused  of  a  "most  slothful  and  dis- 
honorable attendance  and  neglect  of  business,"  he  intrust- 
ed the  executive  authority  to  five  commissioners,  of  whom 
Moore  and  Lloyd  were  two.  He  complained  that  no  pro- 
vision was  made  for  the  support  of  government,  or  the 
reimbursement  of  the  heavy  expenses  he  had  encounter- 
ed, So  far,  indeed,  from  any  new  votes  of  money,  with- 
out consulting  Penn  on  the  subject,  Lloyd  "  compliment- 
ed some  few  selfish  spirits"  with  the  repeal  of  the  impost, 
to  which  the  proprietary,  though  willing  to  suspend  its 
immediate  collection,  seems  to  have  looked  as  a  future 
permanent  provision  for  his  family.  The  colonists  thought 
the  proprietary  had  enriched  himself  at  their  expense  by 
the  receipt  of  £20,000  for  lands,  upon  which  the  ^qtiit- 
rents,  if  paid,  would  have  amounted  to  £,500  annually. 
But  Penn  complained  that  Ms  expenditures  had  exceed- 


SO  HISTORY    OF  THE  UNITED   ST-ATES. 

CHAPTER  «d  his  receipts  by  five  or  six  thousand  pounds ;  that  his 
I  '     quit-rents  were  not  paid  ;  and  that,  since  his  departure, 

1688.  He  had  not  received  even  "the  present  of  a  skin  or  a 
pound  of  tobacco."    He  had  not  been  furnished  with  copies 
qf  the  laws  passed  during  his  absence ;   and  he  alleged 
that,  did  he  choose  to  take  advantage  of  it,  the  miscon- 
duct of  the  Assembly  had,  over  and  over  again,  forfeited 
the  charter. 

Dec.  Wearied  'out  with  these  complaints,  Thomas  Lloyd 
begged  to  be  excused  front  further  service,  and  Penn 
presently  gave  a  commission  as  lieutenant  governor  to 
John  Blackwell,  no  Quaker,  but  formerly  a  military  offi- 
cer under  Cromwell,  a  son-in-law  of  General  Lambert,' 
at  the  time  of  -his  appointment  a  resident  in  New  En- 
"  gland.  Blackwell  insisted  on  the  rights  of  the  proprietary 
'with  the  imperious  sternness  of  military  manners,  and 
a  year  of  violent  discords  followed,  to  which  Penn  put  a 

1790.  stop  by  restoring  the  executive  authority  to  the  council ; 
Feb-  not,  however,  without  a  oharge  that  no  laws  should  be 
passed  except  with  a  proviso  subjecting  them  to  his  ap- 
proval-'— one  of  the  points  upon  which  Blackwell  and  the 
Assembly  had  disagreed. 

1687.  Meanwhile,  a  printing  press,  the  third  in  America,  \va.s 
set  up  at  Philadelphia,  A  public,  high  school  was  also 

1689.  established,  fa  which  Penn  gave  a  charter. 


NEW   FRANCE. 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

NEW  FRANCE.    THE  REGION  OF  THE  GREAT  LAKES  AND 
THE  MISSISSIPPI.. 

?  T  E  have  had  occasion,  in  previous  chapters,  to  notice  CHAPTER 

the  origin  and  progress  of  the  French  settlements  on  the . — 

Bay  of  Fundy  and  the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence — set-  - 
tlements  cotemporaneous  with  the  oldest  English  'colo- 
nies in  America.  The  dividing  ridges  of  mountains  be- 
tween the  eastern  and  western  waters  long  'opposed  to 
the  explorations  of  the  English  a  barrier  regarded  as 
almost  impassable.  Devoted  chiefly  to  agriculture,  the 
fisheries,  and  maritime  trade,  the  English  colonists  had 
little  stimulus  to  interior  exploration.  Confined  to  a 
narrow  strip  along  the  sea-coast,  they  had  remained  for  • 
three  quarters  of  a  century  with  no  knowledge  of  what 
lay  beyond  it,  except  some  vague  reports  derived  from 
the  French  and  the  Indians. 

The  fur  traders  and  missionaries,  who  shared  between 
them  the  enterprise  of  New  France,  were  led,  by  then; 
very  callings,  to  much  more  extensive  explorations,  for 
which,  indeed^,  the  St.  Lawrence  and  its  tributaries  of- 
fered facilities  which  the  English  did  not  possess.      The 
founder  of  Quebec,  justly  denominated  the  father  of  New 
France,  himself  explored,  in  three  several  expeditions,  1609. 
and  left  his  name  to  the  waters  now  so  familiar  as  Lake  1613. 
Champlain,  but  which  only  became  vaguely  known,  many  1615. 
years  afterward,  to  the  English  as  one  of  several  great 
interior  lakes.      The  inveterate  hostility  of  the  Mohawks 
stopped  the  progress  of  the.  French  toward  the  south, 
II.— F 


32  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES: 

-HABTER  prevented  them  perhaps  from  anticipating  the  Dutch  in 
occupying  the  upper  waters,  if  not,  indeed,  the  whole 


1620.  .course  of  the  Hudson.  Cut  off  in  that  direction,  Fathers 
Le  Garon,  Sagard,  and  other  Franciscan  missionaries  of 
the  Recollect  order,  whom  Champlain  had  carried  to 

1625.  Canada,  followed  the  footsteps  of  that  enterprising  ex- 

1626.  plore"r  in  penetrating  along  the  north  shore  of  Lake  On- 
tario till  they  reached,  the 'rivers  flowing, into  Lake  Hu- 
ron,   fork's  brief;  conquest  interrupted  these  explorations. 

1632.  Qotemporaneously  with  the  settlement  of  Massachusetts 
Bay,  Canada,  restored  to  its  original  occupiers,  passed 
to  the  Company  of  New  France.  The  Jesuits  having, 
at  the  same  time,  obtained  a  monopoly  of  the  Canadian 
missions,  entered  upon  their  work  with  characteristic 
zeal,  giving  here, '  as  elsewhere,  striding  proofs  of  an  en- 
ergy which  made  that  celebrated  order  the  admiration  qf 
.  Catholics  and  the  terrpr  of  Protestants. 

There  we,re  already  some  Jesuit  missionaries  in  Canada, 
'and  others  soon  arrived.    Brebeuf  and  Daniel,  two  of  their 

1634.  number,  with  a  party  of  Hurons,  ascended  the  Ottawa, 
the  great  western  tributary,  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  and. 
after  infinite  labors  and  fatigues  in  rowing  up  stream, 
reached  the  eastern  projection  of  Lake  Huron,  known  now 
as  the  Manatouline,  or  Georgian  Bay,  but  called  by  the 
French  missionaries  Lake  Irequoise.  Among  vthe  Hu- 
rons on  the  borders  of  this  lake  and  jts  tributary  streams, 
particular!^  along  the  outlet  of  Lake  Toronto — on  many 
modern  maps  called  Lake  Si  mcoe-r-six  -missions  were 
soon  established,  and  in  any  Indian  converts  were  made. 
Now  and  then  one  of  these  fathers  would  make  a  voyage 
to  Quebec  in  a  canoe,  with  two  or  three  savages,  paddle 
in  hand,  exhausted  with  rowing,  his  feet  naked,  his 
breviary  hanging  about  his  peck,  his  shirt  unwashed, 
his  cassock  half  torn  from  his  lean  body,  but  with  a  face 


NEW    FRANCE:  S3 

full  of  content,  charmed  with  the  life,  he  led,  and  ia-  CHAPTER 

•,  •  i  •  ,     .  .  .       xvim 

spiring  by  his  air  and  his  words  a  strong  desire  to  join .      .  . 

him  in  the  mission.  1634. 

The  news  of  this  success  excited  much  enthusiasm 
among  the  pious  French  Catholics,  and  soon  led  to  the 
endowment  of  a  Jesuit  college  and   school   for  Indian -1635. 
children  at  Quebec,  followed  by  a  hospital,  and  an  Ursu-  1637. 
line  convent  for  the  education  of  girls- — institutions  GO-  1638. 
temporary   in  their  origin  with  the  Puritan  college  at'  -. 
Cambridge,  in  New  England.     • 

Montreal,  occupied,  with  many  religious  ceremonies,  1642. 
as  a  missionary  station,  and  specially  consecrated  to  the 
mother  of  God,  offered  a  convenient  point  of  intercom- 
munication between  Quebec  and  Lake  Huron.      Under 
M.  de  Montmagny,  who  succeeded,  on  Champlain's  death,  1636. 
to  the  governor  generalship  of  New  France,  the  missions 
continued  to  extend  themselves.     Coasting  the  northern 
shores  of  Lake  Huron  in  birch  bark  canoes,  Raymbault 
and  Jogues  reached  the  distant  country  of  the  Chippewas,  1641.  • 
at  the  foot  of  the  falls  of  St.  Mary. 

The  missionaries  were  not  ignorant  of  Lakes  Ontario 
and  Erie,  and  of  the  access  they   afforded  toward  the 
regions  of  the  southwest.      But  the  hostility  of  the  Iro- 
quois — feebly  supported  as  the  colony  was  by  supplies,, 
and  aid   from  France — prevented  explorations  in   that 
direction.      The  Mohawk    war  parties   even,  beset  .the 
stream  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  some  of  the  missionaries 
fell  into  their  hands.      Such  was  the  fate  of  Jogues  on  1642. 
his   return   from  the  Chippewas.      He  was  obliged,  at 
three  successive  villages,  to'  run  the  gauntlet,  according 
to  an  Indian  custom,  between  two  rows  of  savage  tor- 
mentors, who  struck  at  him  as  he  passed.      But  he  esr    . 
caped  with  his  life,  and,  as  we  have  seen  already,  owed  1643. 
his  rescue  front  captivity,  it  not  from  death,  to  the  active 


34  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED,  ST  AT  E  S. 

CHAPTER  humanity  of  Van  Cuyler,  the  Dutch  commandant  at 

XVIII.  • 

.  Rensselaerswyk.     On  his  voyage  from  New  Amsterdam 

1643;  — for  he  could  only  reach  Canada  again  by  first  going 
to  France- — Father  Jogues  was  shipwrecked  on  the  En- 
glish coast  near  Falmouth,  where  he  experienced  treat- 
ment of  which  even  the  Iroquois  would  have  been  ashamed, 
Being  plundered  by  the  wreckers,  and  stripped  even  of 
the  clothes  on  his  back.  A  year  or  two  after,  the  Dutch 
performed  a  like  good  office  for  Father  Bressani,  another 

1-644.  Jesuit  who  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  Iroquois. 

With  equal  enterprise  and  energy  the  Jesuit  mis- 
sionaries penetrated  toward  the  East.  Following  the 
steps  of  Indian  guides,  sent  to  Quebec  to  ask  for  a  mis- 

1646.  sionary,  Dreuillettes  crossed  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to 
the  sources  of  the  Kennebecr  down  which  river  he  de- 
scended to  its  mouth,  and  thence  coasted  to  the  east- 
ward till  he  reached  the  missionary  station,  which,  un- 
der the  patronage  of  D'Aulney,  some  Franciscans  had 
/  established  on  the  Penobscot.  There  had  been,  indeed, 
as  we  have  seen  in  a  former  chapter,  still  earlier  French 
missionary  stations  on  that  coast,  years  before  the  set- 
tlement of  Massachusetts  Bay,  or  even  of  Plymouth. 
On  the  favorable  report  of  Dreuillettes,  measures  were 
taken  for  establishing  in  that  region  a  permanent  Jesuit 
mission. 

The  French  traders. whp  collected  furs  from  the  In- 
dians, and  supplied  them,  in  return,  with  European  goods 
— blankets,  cloths,  hatchets,  knives,  arms,  and  ornaments 
—appear  to  have  been  more  just,  or,  at  least,  more  com- 
plaisant, considerate,  and  polite  than  their  English  rivals 
in  the  same  traffic.  The  French  missionaries,  better  ac- 
quainted than  their  Puritan  cotemporaries  with  human 
nature  and  the  philosophy  of  religious  influence,  were 
more  moderate  in  their  demands,  and  more  tender  in 


NEW   FRANCE.  9.5 

their  treatment.     Instead  of  seeing,  like  the  Puritans.  CHAPTER 

xvm 
in  the  superstition  of  the  Indians  a  detestable  idolatry 

or  the  worship  of,  the  devil,  they  perceived  in' it  the  1646. 
operation  of  that  same  religious  sentiment  on  which 
their  own  system  rested^ — a  sentiment  not  to  be  extin- 
guished, but  insensibly  diverted  to  new  observances  and 
associated  with  new  ideas.  Though  themselves  enthu- 
siasts of  the  highest  pitch,  they  asked  not  so  much  of 
their  converts,  ecstasies  and  metaphysics,  of  which  only 
a  select  few  are  capable,  as  admiring  reverence  and  cere- 
monial observances,  which  ever  constitute  the  religion  of 
the  mass.  Themselves  in  the  highest  degree  self-deny- 
ing and  ascetic,  surpassing  in  this  respect  even  their  Pu- 
ritan rivals,  they  yet  looked  with  fatherly  indulgence 
on  the  human  weaknesses  and  easily  besetting  sins  of 
their  converts.  Those  converts  were  admitted  to  all  the 
privileges  of  French  subjects  ;  intermarriages  became 
frequent — for  prejudices  of  caste  were  much  less  strong 
on  the  part  of  the  French  than  of  the  English — and 
thence  resulted  a  mixed  race,  the  Canadian  "  couriers  , 
of  the  woods,"  boatmen  and  woodsmen,  combining  the 
hardihood  and  activity  of  the  Indians  with  the  more  do-  ^ 

cile,  manageable,  and  persevering  temper  of  the  French. 
To  their  more  genial,  social,  accommodating  spirit,  not 
less  than  to  their  superior  numbers  and  ampler  resources, 
but  most  of  all  to  their  untiring  and  devoted  zeal,  we 
must  ascribe  the  superior  success  of  the  Jesuit  mission- 
aries. Those  employed  in  New  France  had  some  dozen 
in  their  ranks  not  less  zealous  than  Eliot  and  far  more 
enterprising,  whose  travels  and  adventures,  as  recorded 
in  their  annual  relations,  show  religious  influences  and 
theocratic  ideas  not  less  operative  in  the  first  explorations 
of  the  distant  West  than  in  the  original  settlement  of 
New  England. 


$6  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER       "-It  is  certain."  says  Charlevoix,  "  as  well  from  the 

xvm.  * 

annual  relations  of  those  happy  times,  as  from  the  con- 
1646.  stant  tradition  of  thaj;  country,  that  a  peculiar  unction 
Attached  .to  this  savage  mission,  giving  it  a  preference 
over  many  others  far  more .  brilliant  and  more  fruitful. 
The  reason  no  doubt  was,  that  nature,  finding  nothing 
there  ta  gratify  the  senses  or  to  flatter  vanity- — stum- 
bjing  blocks  too'  common  even  to  the  holiest— ^gr ace 
worked  without  obstacle.  The  Lord,  who  never  allows 
himself  to  be  outdone,  communicates  himself  without 
meaeur.e  to  those  who  sacrifice  themselves  without  re- 
serve;  who,  dead  to  all,  detached  entirely  from  them- 
selves and  the  world,  possess  their  souls  in  unalterable 
peace,  perfectly  established  in  that  child-like  spirituality 
which  Jesus  Christ  has  recommended  to  his  disciples  as 
that  which  ought  to  be  the  most  marked  trait  of  their 
character."  "  Such  is  the  portrait*"  adds  Charlevoix;, 
*l  drawn  of  the  missionaries  of  New  France  by  those  who 
knew  them  best.  I  myself  knew  some  of  them  in  my 
youth,  and  I  found  them  such  as  I  have  painted  them, 
bending  under  the  labor  of  a  long  apostleship,  with  bodies 
exhausted  by  fatigues  and  broken  with  age,  but  still 
preserving  all  the  vigor  of  the  apostolic  spirit,  and  I 
have  thought  it  but  right  to  do.  them  here  the  same  jus- 
tice universally  done  them  in' the  country  of  their  labors." 
Whatever  the  success  of  the  French  missionaries  among 
the  more  northern  and  western  tribes,  they  encountered 
in  ..the  Iroquois*  or  Five  Nations,  firm  and  formidable 
opponentSi  That  celebrated  confederacy,  besides  subject 
•tribes,  included  five  allied  communities :  the  Sehecas,  the 
Cayugas,  the  Onondagas,  ,the  Oneidas,  and  the  Mohawks ; 
which  last,  as  being  nearest  to  their  settlements,  often 
gave,  among  the^English,  a  name  to.  the,  whole.  Each 
<  of  thesecfive  nations' was  divided  into  three  clans,  dis- 


NEW  FRANCE.  3.7 

tinguished  as  tfre  bear,  the  tortoise,  and  the  wolf.  Their  CHAPTER 
castles,  rude  forts,  places  of  protection  for  the  women, . 
children,  and  old  men,  surrounded  by  fields  of  corn,  1646. 
beans,  and  squashes,  the  head-quarters  of  the  several 
tribes,  were  situated  on  those  waters  of  central  New 
York,  of  which  the  names  serve  as  memorials,  and  now 
almost  the  only  ones,  of  their  ancient  possessors.  Some 
slender  remnants  of  this  once  powerful  confederacy 'Still 
linger,  however,  on  small  reservations  of  their  ancient 
territory.  It  was  in  courage,  ferocity,  and  warlike  en- 
terprise, far  more  than  in  social  institutions  or  .the  arts 
of  peace,  that  the  Iroquois  surpassed  the  tribes  of  Algon- 
quin descent  on  their  eastern,  southern,  and  western 
borders.  It  was  not  against  those  tribes  as  Algonquin 
that  the  Five  Nations  carried  on  war,  for  their  hostility 
was  directed  with  even  greater  fury  against  the.Hurons 
and  Wyandots,  who  dwelt  along^  the  St.  Lawrence  and  ' 
north  of  Lake  Ontario,  and  who  spoke  dialects  of  the 
same  language  with  themselves.  The  early  alliance  of 
the  French  with  those  tribes  had  rendered  the  French 
colonists  objects  of  implacable  hate  to  the  Five  Nations. 

In  vain,  during  a  short,  interval  of  peace,  strenuous 
efforts  were  made  to  establish  a  spiritual  influence  over 
these  fierce  warriors.  Father  Jogues,  whose  captivity 
had  made  him  acquainted  with  the  ^chiefs,  having  re- 
turned again-  to  Canada,  was  sent  among  them  as  em- 
bassador  and  missionary — a  dangerous  service,  in  which 
he  met  the  death  he  had  formerly  escaped. 

Supplied  with  fire-arms  by  the  Dutch,  and  rendered 
thus  more  formidable  than  ever^  the  Iroquois  renewed  a 
war  by  which  the  missionaries  and  their,  converts  were 
equally  -endangered.  Daniel,  the  venerable  father,  of  the 
Huron  mission,  perished  in  the  midst  of  his  flock,  sur-  1648. 
prised  and  massacred  by  p  Mohawk  war  party.  Bre- 


p* 

88  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  beuf  and  Lalamand,  taken  prisoners,  were  burned  at  the 

XVIII 

1_  stake  ;  Gamier  perished  by  the  hatchets  of  the  Iroquois ; 

1649.  Chabanel  was  lost  in  the  woods.  The  Huron  missions, 
by  these  renewed  onslaughts,  were  completely  broken  up. 
The  Hurons,  Wyandots,  aijd  Ottawas,  greatly  reduced 
in  numbers,  were  driven  from  their  country,  which  be- 
came a  hunting  ground  for  the  Iroquois.  Subsequent- 
ly the  Hurons  and  Ottawas  established  themselves  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Mackinaw.  Mohawk  war  parties 
harassed  the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  The  unhap- 
py colonists  lived  in  daily  dread  of  massacre.  Quebec 
itself  was  Dot  safe.  This  emergency  caused  a  message 
1<651.  to  ask  aid  of  New  England,  as  mentioned  in  a  former 
chapter,  or,  at  least,  a  free  passage  for  war  parties  of  the 
Eastern  tribes  under  French  influence  in  their  march 
.against, the  Mohawks — a  message  borne  by  John  Gode- 
froy,  one  of  the  council  of  New  France,  and  Dreuillettes, 
former  explorer  of  the  passage  from  Quebec  to  the  east- 
ern coast,  described  in  his  commission  as  "  preacher  of 
the  Gospel  to  savage  nations."  But  the  Commissioners 
for  the  United  Colonies  of  New  England  listened  with 
but  a  cold  ear  to  the  story  of  the  martyrdom  of  the  French 
missionaries  and  the  sufferings  of  their  Indian  converts. 
No  aid  could  be  obtained  in  that  quarter  ;  but,  after  two 
1654.  or  three  years  of  perpetual  alarms,  the  Iroquois  consented 
-  at  last  to  a  peace. 

Again  the  attempt  at  conversion  was  renewed,  and 
now  with  more  hopes  of  success,  since  many  of  the  Hu> 
ron  captives,  incorporated  into  the  tribes  of  the  Iroquois, 
still  retained  sortie  tincture  of  their  former  instructions. 
Le  Moyne  established  himself  among  the  Mohawks ; 
Ch&umpnot  and  Dablon  found,  a  more  promising  field 
among  the  Oneidas  and  Onondagas ;  Mesnard  was  kindly 
received  by  the  Cayugas  ;  and  presently  Chaumoriot, 


/'•'•„,     .  •  V" 

'•';-,'• 
•  . 


NEW  FRANCE. 


89 


leaving  Dablon  to  prosecute  the  Oneida  mission,  made  CIIAPTEK 

xviii  • 
hia  way  among  the  Senecas,  the  most  western,  and,  ai 

the  same  time,  the  most  numerous  and  powerful  tribe  of 

the  confederacy.      Fifty  Frenchmen  from  Montreal  es~  16 §6. 

tablished  a  little  colony  on  the  banks  of  the'  Oswego. 

But  this  attempt  at  settlement  excited  jealousy.      Old 

hatreds  were  not  yet  forgotten.      The  missionaries  lived 

in  constant  danger.      The  colonists  on  the  Oswego  soon 

found  themselves  obliged  to  fly  for  their  lives,  and  the  war  1658.  . 

was  renewed  as  fiercely  as  ever.  165,9. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  the  Abbe  Montigny,  the 
first  bishop  of  New  France,  arrived  at  Quebec.  At  the 
same  time  came  a  deputation  of  priests  of  the  seminary 
of  St.  Sulpice  at  Paris,  an  institution  devoted  to  foreign 
missions,  to  whom  the  Island  of  Montreal  had  been  grant- 
ed in  fief.  They  laid  the  foundation  of  the  present  city 
by  establishing  a  hospital,  endowed  with  gifts  from 
France,  whence  came  also  some  religious  women  to  serve 
it.  To  the  unassisted  energy  of  Marguerite  Bourgeoise 
the  institution  of  the  Daughters  of  the  Congregation 
owes  its  origin.  "With  no  other  resource  than  her 
courage  and  her  confidence  in  God,"  she  undertook  the 
establishment  of  a  convent  at  Montreal,  to  secure  for  all 
female  children,  however  poor  and  destitute,  a  useful  and 
respectable  education  ;  and  the  Daughters  of  the  Con- 
gregation, to  a  great  extent,  fulfilled  her  intentions.  The 
Lords  of  Montreal  were  very  choice  in  the  selection  of 
inhabitants.  The  whole  island,  we  are  told,  resembled  a 
religious  community. 

The  new  bishop  brought  with  him  some  ecclesiastics, 
who  began  now  to  fulfill  the  duties   of  parish  priests, 
hitherto  performed  by  the1  Jesuits.      A  seminary  for  the 
education  of  Jesuits  was  shortly  after  established  at  Que-  1662. 
bee.      There  was  a  much  closer  resemblance  than  is  com- 


90  HISTORY    OF  'THE    UNITED    STATES. 

(  -N. 

CHAPTER  monly  supposed  between  the  settlers  of  New  France  and 
.  those  of  New  England.  Both  aimed  at  establishing  a 
1659.  theocracy.  That,  however,  *>f  the  Jesuits  was  the  more 
comprehensive.  In  the  spirit  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  they 
sought  to  bring  all  the  scattered  savage  tribes  of  North 
America,  into  the  Christian  fold;  while  the  New  En- 
gland Puritans  were  mostly  content  to  propagate,  after 
the  example  of  the  Jews,  a  chosen  and  peculiar  people. 
La  Hontan  complains,  twenty  years  after,  that  at  Mon- 
.  .  treal  it  was  a  perpetual  Lent.  "  We  have  here  a  mis- 
anthropical bigot  of  a  cure,  under  whose  spiritual  despot- 
ism play  and  visiting  the  ladies  are  reckoned  among  the 
mortal  sins,  If  you  have  the  misfortune  to  be  on  his 
black  list,^he  launches  at  you  publicly,  from  the  pulpit, 
•  a  bloody  censure.  As  Messieurs  the  priests  of  St.  Sul- 
pice  are  our  temporal  lords,  they  take  the  greater  liberty 
to  tyrannize  over  Us.  To  keep  well  with  them,  it  is  nec- 
essary to  communicate  once  a  month.  These  Arguses 
have  their  eyes  constantly  on  the  conduct  of  the  women 
and  4he  girls.  Fathers  and  husbands  may  sleep  in  all 
assurance,  unless  they  have  some  suspicions  as  to  these 
vigilant  sentinels  themselves.  Of  all  the  vexation  of  these 
disturbers,  I  find  none  so  intolerable  as  their  war  upon 
books.  None  are  to  be  found  here  but  books  of  devotion 
All  others  are  prohibited  and  condemned  to  the  flames." 
Our  author  winds  up  with  -  a  ludicrous  account  how  his 
Petronius,  left  by  accident  on  his  table,  was  mutilated 
by  a  devout  priest,  .who  took  it  upon  himself  to  tear 
out  all  the  best  leaves,  under  pretense  that  they  were 
scandalous.  "  No  one  dare  be  absent  from  great  masses 
•  and  sermons  without  special  excuse.  These  are  the  times, 
however,  at  which  the  women  take  a  little  liberty,  being 
sure  that  thejr  husbands  and  mothers  are  at  church." 
During  the  shork interval  of  peace  with  the  French, 


, 

NEW  FRANCE;  9^ 

the  Iroquois  had  directed  their  arms  against  the  Eries,  a  CHAPTER 

tribe  along  the  southern  shore  of  the  lake  of  that  name, 

speaking  the  same  language  with  themselves.    The  Eries  1659;.  • 
were  exterminated,  and  the  war  parties  of  the  Iroquois 
presently  threatened  the  Miarnis,  the  Illinois,  arid  other 
tribes  of  the  Far  West.  . 

Some  French  traders  had  recently  penetrated  among 
those  tribes,  whicji  now  became  anxious  for  French  com- 
merce and  alliance  as  a  means  of  defense  against  the 
Iroquois.  The  Jesuits  were  not  to  be  outdone  by  the  fur 
traders.  Mesnard,  late  missionary  among  the  Cayugas, 
made  his/,  way  to  the  shores  of  Lake  Superior,  where  he 
perished,  lost  in  the  woods.  Le  Moyne,  no  less  intrepid,  1661. 
ventured  to  return  to  Onondaga  ;  and  the  western  clans 
of  the  Iroquois  seemed  inclined  to  peace.  But  the  Mo- 
hawks were  implacable  ;  and  Canada  was  again  reduced 
to  great  distress.  Even  abandonment  of  ttie  country  be- 
gan to  be  thought  of.  The  Company  of  New  France,  1662. 
reduced  now  to  fifty-five  associates,  discouraged  and  im- 
poverished, resigned  up  all  their  rights  to  the  crown. 

A  new  era  had  commenced  in  France.  The  youth- 
ful Louis  XIV.,  just  come  of  age,  had  lately  assumed  the 
administration.  Colbert,  his  minister  of  finance,  one  of 
the  first  continental  statesmen  to  perceive  the  growing 
political  importance  of  commerce,  presently  formed  a  1664. 
West  India  Company,  principally  for  promoting  settle- 
ment and  cultivation  in  those  islands  of  the  Caribbeaa 
Sea,  partially  occupied  by  French  adventurers  during 
the  last  thirty  years  ;  -  and  to  this  new  and  wealthier  as- 
sociation the  king  transferred  the  province  of  Canada, 
which  the  Company  of  New  France  had  proved  so  una- 
ble to  defend.  Tracy,  an  old  man,  but  indefatigable,  ap- 
pointed viceroy,  after  regulating  matters  in  the  West  In* 
dies,  proceeded  to  Canada  with  several  companies  of  the  1665. 


92  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER-  regiment  of  Carignan,  lately  returned  from  Hungary,  and 
distinguished    there    in    the    war    against    the    Turks. 

1665.  Courcelles  was  commissioned  as  governor  general,  and 
Talon  as  intendant. 

The   Iroquois,  overawed,  gave  up  their  inroads,  and 

.  forts  were  built  at  Sorel  and  Chambly  to  restrain  them. 

1664.  Without  waiting  for  a  formal  treaty  of  peace,  Father 

Allouez  recommenced  the  exploration  of  Lake  Superior. 

He  coasted  the  southern  shore  for  a  considerable  distance, 

and  obtained  some  knowledge  of  those  copper  mines,  im- 

rnemorially  known  to  the  Indians,  for  which  that  region 

is  now  becoming  famous.     From  the  Indian  tribes  on  the 

lake  with'  which  he  made  acquaintance,  Allouez  heard 

some  vague  reports  of  a  great  western  river. 

Having  returned  to  Quebec  after  a  two  years'  absence, 
this  enterprising  missionary  was  presently  sent,  with 

1666.  Dablon  and  Marquette,  to  establish  the  mission  of  St. 
Mary,  on  the  southern  shore  of  the  outlet  of  Lake  Su- 
perior— the  first  settlement  of  white  men  within  the  lim- 

'.  its  of  our  northwestern  states.  The  activity  of  the  Jes- 
uits was  perhaps  somewhat  stimulated  by  the  fact  that 
Talon,  recently  returned  from  a  visit  to  France,  had 
brought  with  him  a  number  of  Recollect  friars,  who,  after 
forty  years  exclusion  from  Canada,  had  obtained  leave  to 
renew, their  labors  there.  The  same  jealous  emulation, 
to  be  noticed  in  our  day  among  rival  Protestant  sects, 
sometimes  pretty  emphatically  expressed,  displayed  itself 
among  the  Catholic  missionaries.  The  Recollects  estab- 
lished a  large  monastery  at  Quebec ;  and  the  jealousy 
which  sprung  up  between  them  and  the  Jesuits,  as  well 
as  the  growing  freedom  of  the  times,  which  spread  even, 
to  Canada,  contributed  somewhat  to  diminish  the  priestly 
power  in  that  country. 

The  peninsula  between  Lake  Superior  and  Green 


THE  MISSISSIPPI.  93 

was  soon  explored.      Milwaukie,  Chicago,  and  Saint  Jo-  CHAPTER 

seph's  were  visited,  and  relations  of  friendship  established, 

and  missions  planted  among  the  tribes  on  Lake  Michi-  1672. 
gan.  From  these  tribes  new  accounts  were  heard  of  that 
great  western  riVer  of  which  Allouez  had  been  told  ;  and 
Marquette,  who  had  for  some  time  cherished  the  idea  of 
such  an  enterprise,  was  presently  deputed  by  the  Intend- 
ant  Talon  to  add,  along  the  banks  of  that  rivery  new 
regions  to  the  dominion  of  France,  and  new  missions  to 
the  empire  of  the  Jesuits.  For  the  purpose  of  that  explo- 
ration, he  left  the  station  of  St.  Ignatius,  on  the  northern  1673. 
shore  of  the  Strait  of  Mackinaw,  accompanied  by  Joliet, 
a  trader  of  Quebec,  and  five  other  Frenchmen,  with  a 
number  of  Indian  guides.  They  paddled  up  Green  Bay 
in  birch  bark  canoes,  ascended  Fox  River  to  the  head 
of  navigation,  and  crossed  the  portage  to  the  banks  of  the 
Wisconsin.  The  Indian  guides  left  them  here,  afraid 
to  venture  further  into  a  region  inhabited  by  the  hostile 
Sioux,  and  concerning  which  many  frightful  fables  were 
told.  The  adventurous  Frenchmen,  thus  left  to  them- 
selves, again  launched  their  canoes,  and,  descending  the 
Wisconsin,  in  seven  days,  delighted  and  exulting,  they 
entered  the  MISSISSIPPI,  that  "  great  riv^r,"  for  so  the  June  17. 
name  imports,  of  which  they  were  in  search. 

Floating  down  with  the  current,  and  passing  in  suc- 
cession the  mouths  of  the  Des  Moines,  the  Illinois,  the 
Missouri,  and  the  Ohio,  they  kept  on  as  far  as  the  Ar- 
kansas, beginning  to  encounter,  as  they  proceeded,  de- 
cided evidence  of  a  southern  climate.  They  were  now 
among  the  Chickasaws ;  and  at  some  villages  where  they 
landed  they  found  the  inhabitants  in  possession  of  tools, 
arms,  and  ornaments  of  European  manufacture,  derived, 
as  they  supposed,  from  the  Spaniards  of  Mexico.  The 
lower  course  of  the  river,#  according  to  these  Indians, 


9,4  HISTORY   PF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  was  infested, by  dangerous  and  hostile  tribes.'    Marquette 
___lr_T.  was  now  satisfied  that  the  discharge  must-  be,  not  into 
1674,  Chesapeake  Bay  or  the  Gulf  of  California, -as  had  been 
conjectured,  but  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico ;  and  fearful,  if 
he  proceeded,  of  losing  the  fruits  of  his  discovery  by  fall- 
ing into  the  hands  of  the  Spaniards,  who  still  jealously 
asserted  their  exclusive  claim  to  the  whole  -coast  of  the 
Mexican  Gulf,  the  explorers  turned  about,  and  painfully 
made  their  way- back  again  up  the  stream. 

When  they  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois,  perceiv- 
ing that  river  to  come  from  the  northeast,  and  justly 
hoping  to  find  a  shorter  route  to  Lake  Michigan,  they 
entered  and  ascended  to  its  head,  encountering  along  its 
whole  course  only  a  single  Indian  village.  Having  crossed 
thfe  short  portage  from  the  upper  waters  of  the  Illinois  to 
Chicago,  they  .-again  launched  their  canoes  on  the  waters 
of  Lake '  Michigan  and  paddled  back  to  Green  Bay. 
Marquette  resumed  his  missionary  labors  ;  Joliet  pro- 
ceeded to  Quebec  with  news  of  the  discovery,  an  account 
1681.  of  which  was  published  at  Paris  a  few  years  after.  For 
his  services  in  this  exploration  Joliet  received  a  grant 
of  the  large  but  barren  island  of  Anticosti,  near  the  en- 
trance of  the  St.  Lawrence. 

The  extensive  'region  thus  brought  for  the  first  time 
to  the  notice  of  Europeans  seems,  at  the  time  of  its  dis- 
covery, to  have  been  very  thinly  inhabited.  The  fertile 
plains  of  Illinois  and  the  adjacent  territories,  washed  by 
the  Upper  Mississippi  and  the  Lower  Ohio,  though  an- 
nually visited  by  migrating  herds  of  buffalo,  were,  on  the 
whole,  but  indifferently  supplied  with  those  spontane- 
ous products  on  which  the  Indians  chiefly  relied  for  food. 
The  smooth -running  rivers  were  scantily  furnished  with 
fish,  and  there  were  no  falls  to  assist  in  their  capture. 
In  the  whole  voyage  from  the  Wisconsin  to  the  Arkansas 


THE   MISSI-SSIPPI.- 


9  £ 


the, explorers  had  passed  only  two1  or  three  Indian  vil-  CHAPTER 

lages.      The  rugged  shores  of -Lake   Superior  •  and  the 

northern  region  of  that  vicinity,  well  supplied  with  fish,  1674. 
fowl,  and' wild  rice,  could  boast  a  much  more  numerous 
aboriginal  population. 

Among  other  adventurers  who  had  passed  over  'to  New 
France  since  its  transfer  to  the  French  West  India  Com- 
pany was1  the  young  La  Salle,  a  native  of  Rouen,  edu- 
cated as  a  Jesuit,  but  who  went  to  Canada  to  seek  his-    "'.   • 
fortune  by  discovering  an  overland  passage  to  China  and 
Japan.      After  giving  proofs  of  sagacious  activity  by  ex- 
ploration^ in  Lakes  Ontario  and  Erie,  he  ,had  returned 
to   France,  and   had   obtained  there   from  the  king,  to 
whom  Canada  had  reverted  since  the  recent  dissolution  1675. 
of  the  West  India  Company,  the  grant  of  Fort  Frontenac, 
a  post  at  the  outlet  of  Ontario,  on  the  spot  where  Kings-  s 
ton  now  stands,  built  three  years  before  by  the-  Count  de 
Frontenac,  who  had  succeeded  at  that  time  to  the  office    , 
of  governor  general.      On  condition  of  keeping  up  that 
post.  La  Salle  received  the  grant  of  a  wide'  circuit 'of' 
the  neighboring  country,  and  an  exclusive  right  of  trade 
with  the  Iroquois,  as  a  check  upon  whom  the  fort  had 
been  built.      But  his  ardent  and  restless  disposition  was 
not  thus  to  be  satisfied.      Fired  by  reports  of  the  recently 
discovered  great  river  of  the  West,  while  Virginia  was  1677. 
.distracted  by  Bacon's  insurrection,  and  New  England  yet" 
smarting  under  the  effects  of  Philip's  war,  La  Salle  left 
his  fur  trade,  his  fields,  his  cattle,  his  vessels,  and  his 
Indian  dependents  at  Fort  Frontenac,  and,  repairirig  to 
France  a  second  time,  obtained  a  royat  commission  for 
perfecting  the  discovery  of  the  Mississippi,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  a  monopoly  of  the  trade  .iri  buffalo  skins, 
which  seemed  likely  to  prove  the  chief  staple  of  that 
region. 


.    *  96  HISTORY    OF    THE   .UNITED    STATES.    ' 

CHAPTER    ,  .Thus  successful  in  his  missign,  La  Salle  returned  to 
•  Fort  Frontenac  with  men  and  stores  to  prosecute  his  en- 

1678.  terprise,  accompanied  by  the  Chevalier  Tonti,  an  Italian 
soldier,  who  acted  as  his  lieutenant.     Before  winter,  he 

Nov.  ascended  Lake  Ontario,  entered  the  Niagara,  and,  passing 
round  the  falls,  selected  a  spot  at  the  foot  of  Lake  Erie, 
not  far  .from  the  present  site  of  Buffalo,  where  he  com- 
menced building  the  « Griffin,"  a  bark  of.  sixty  tons. 

1679.  This  bark,  in  the  course  of  the  next  summer,  was  equip- 
ped with  sails  and  cordage  brought  from  Fort  Frontenac, 

Aug.  7.  and  in  the  autumn,  first  of  civilized  vessels,  she  plowed 
her  way  up  Lake  Erie,  bearing  La  Salle,  Tonti,  the  Flem- 
ing Hennepin,  and  several  other  friars  of  the  Recollect 
order.  .  Sixty  sailors,  boatmen,  hunters,  and  soldiers 
made  up  the  company.  Having  entered  Detroit,  "  the 
strait"  or  river  at  the  head  of  Lake  Erie,  they  passed 
,  through  it  into  that  limpid  sheet  of  water,  to  which  La 
Salle  gave  the  characteristic  name  of  St.  Clair.  Hence 
they  ascended  by  a  second  strait  into  Lake  Huron,  and 
through  the  length  of  that  great  lake,  by  the  Straits  of 
Mackinaw,  into  Lake  Michigan,  whence  they  passed  into 
Green  Bay,  and,  after  a  voyage  of  twenty  days,  cast  an- 

Atig.  27.  chor  at  its  head,  thus  first  tracing  a  passage  now  fast 
becoming  one  of  the  great  highways  of  commerce. 

The  Griffin  was  sent  back  with  a  rich  lading  of  furs, 
under  orders  to  return  with  provisions  and  supplies,  to 
be  conveyed  to  the  head  of  Lake  Michigan ;  but,  unfor- 
tunately, she  was  shipwrecked  on  her  homeward  passage. 
La  Salle  and  his  company  proceeded,  meanwhile,  in  birch 
bark  canoes,  up  Lake  Michigan,  to  the  mouth  of  the  St. 
Joseph's,  where  already  there  was  a  Jesuit  mission. 
Here  they  built  a  fort  called  the  post  of  the  Miamis, 
the  name  by  whicji  the  river  was  then  known.  La 
Salle,  with  most  of  his  people,  presently  crossed  to  a 


THE  MISSISSIPPI. 


9-7 


branch  of  the  Illinois,  down  which  they  descended  into  CHAPTER 

xviu 
the.  main  stream,   on  whose  banks,  below  Peoria,  they , 

built  a  second  fort,  called  Crevecceur  (Heart-break),  to 
signify  their  disappointment  at  the  non-arrival  of  the 
Griffin,  of  which  nothing  had  yet  been  heard. 

To  hasten  or  replace  the  necessary  supplies,  the  ardent  1680. 
and  determined  La  Salle  set  off  on  foot,  with  only, three  March 
attendants,  and,  following  the  dividing  ridge  which  sep- 
arates the  tributaries  of  the  lakes  from  those  of  the  Ohio, 
he  made  his  way  back  again  to  Fort  Frontenac,  where 
he  found  his  affairs  in  the  greatest  confusion,  himself  re- 
ported dead,   and  his  property  seized  by  his  creditors. 
But,  by  the  governor's  aid,  he  made  arrangements  whic|l 
enabled  him  to  continue  the  prosecution  of  his  enterprise. 

During  La  Salle's  absence,  in  obedience  to  orders  pre- 
viously given,  Dacan  and  Hennepin  descended  the  Illinois- 
to  the  Mississippi,  and,  turning  northward,  explored  that 
river  as  high  up  as  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony.  On  their 
way  back  they  entered  the  Wisconsin,  and,  by  the  Fox 
River,  passed  to  Green  Bay,  whence  Hennepin  returned 
to  Quebec  and  to  France,  where  he  wrote  and  published"  1683, 
an  account  of  his  travels. 

Tonti,  meanwhile,  attacked  by  the  Iroquois,  who  had 
made  a  sudden  onslaught  on  the  Illinois  villages,  fled  also 
to  Green  Bay  ;.  and,  when  La  Salle  returned  the  next  au^-  1680, 
tumn  with  "recruits  and  supplies,  he  found  Forts  Miamji    Nov- 
and  Crevecceur  deserted.      Having  built  a  new  fort  in  the 
country  of  the  Illinois,  which  he  called  St.  Louis, .with 
indefatigable  energy  he  returned  again  to  Frontenac,  en-  -1681. 
countering  Tonti  on  his  way ;  and,  having  collected  a 
new  company,  came  back  the  same-  year  to ,  the ,  Illinois,     NoV,' 
and  during  the  winter  b,uilt  and  rigged  a  small  barge,  in 
which,  at  length,  he  descended  to  the  gulf.     Formal  pos-  1682. 
session  of  the  mouth  of  the  river  was  ceremoniouslv  tafe-  ^P"!  9 
II,— G 


.98'        .'    HISTORY.  OF    THE    UNITED    STATED 

CHAPTER  eft  for  the  King  of  France.     The  country  en  the  banks 
xvm. 
. .  .   •'    of  the  Mississippi  received  the  name  of  LOUISIANA,  in  hon- 

1682.  or  of  Louis  XIV. ,  then  at  the  height  of  his  power  and 
reputation ;  but  the  attempt  to  fix  upon  the  river  itself 
the  name  of  Colbert  did  not  sueoeed. 

Having  made  his  Way  back  to  Quebec,  leaving  Tonti 

1683.  in  command  at  Fort  St.  Louis,   La  Salle  returned  a 
third  time  to  France,  whither  the  news  of  his  discovery 

-  had  preceded  him,  ttnd  had  excited  great  expectations. 
In  spite  of  representations  from  Canada  by  his  enemies, 
of  whom  his  harsh-  and  overbearing  temper  made  him 

1684V  many,  he  was  presently  furnished  with  a  frigate  and  three 
other*  ships,  on  board  of  which  embanked '  five  priests, 
twelve  gentlemen,  fifty  soldiers,  a  ntfmber  of  hired  me- 
chanics, and  a  small  body  of  volunteer  agricultural  emi- 
grants, well  furnished  with  tools  and  provisions,  in  all 
two  hundred  arid  eighty  persons,  designed  to  plant  a  col- 
ony at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi. 

Informed  of  this  intended  enterprise^  Tonti,  with  twen- 
ty Canadians. and  thirty  Indians,  descended  from  Fort 
St.  .Louis  to  meet  his  old  commander.     But  La  Salle's 
vessels  missed  the  entrance  of  the  Mississippi,  passed  to 
'the  westward,  and,  after-  a1  vain  search  for  the  river's 

1685.  mouth,   landed  their  feeble  and  dispirited  company   at 
Feb>     some  undetermined  spot  on  the  coast  of  Texas.     A  fort 
was  built,  and  named  St.  Louis.     La  Salle,  with  char- 
"etcteristic  activity,  in  the  vain  hope"  <  of  finding  the  Mis- 
sissippi, penetrated  .and  explored  the  surrounding  coun- 
try.     No  succors  came  from  France  ;    the  only  vessel 
left  with  the  colonists  was  wrecked;  victims  to  the  cli- 
mate, to  home-sickness,  and  despair,  they  were  presently 

1687.'  oreduced  to  thirty-six  persons.     In  this  extremity, -La 

January.  $ajle  set  off  with  sixteen  men,  determined  to  jeach,  Can- 
ada by  land ;  but,  after  "three  months'  wanderings,  he 


NEW  FRANCE. 


99 


was  murdered  by.  two 'mutinous  companions.     The  mur*  CHAPTER 
derers  were  themselWs  murdered ;  some  of  the  men  joined        . 
the  Indians;  finally,  five  of  them  reached  a  point  at  the  1687. 
mouth  of  the  Arkansas,  where  Tonti,  returning  disap-  Marc*v- 
pointed  from  the  gulf,  had  established  a  little -post.    With 
the  Indians  nearest  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  Tonti 
left  a  letter  for  La  Salle,  which  they  faithfully  preserved 
for  fourteen  years,  and  delivered  to  the  first  Frenchmen 
who  made  their  appearance. 

The  twenty  men  left  by  La  Salle  at  Fort  St.  Louis 
obscurely  perished,  and  even  the  site  of  the  fort  passed 
into  oblivion.  Yet  France  in  after  times  claimed  the 
region  thus  transiently  occupied  as  a  part  of  Louisiana. 
The  same  claim  was  revived  more  than  a  century  after- 
ward on  behalf  of  the  United  States,  to  which  Louisiana 
had  been  transferred  by  purchase.  It  was  even  made 
one  of  the  grounds  for  insisting  on  the  recent  annexation 
of  Texas. 

While  La  Salle  pursued  the  exploration  of  the  West, 
the  internal  administration  of  New  France  became  a 
good  deal  embroiled.  Disputes  arose  between  Frontenao, ' 
the  governor  general,  and  M.  Du  Chesneau,  who  had  suc- 
ceeded Talon  as  intendant.  Frontenac  did  not  -quite 
agree  with  the  Jesuits  and  the  bishop  ;  and  he  even  im- 
prisoned the  Abbe  de  Selignac  Fenelon,  of  the  seminary 
of  Saint  Sulpice,  on  the  charge  of  having  presumed  to 
preach  against  him.  The  two  years'  missionary  resi- 
dence in  Canada  of  one,  afterward  so  famous  in  the  world 
of  religion  and  letters,  seems  to  have  been  overlooked  by 
his  biographers.  Yet  he  might  have  gathered  there  some 
hints  for  Telemachus. 

The  selling  of  liquor  to  the  .Indians  had  for  some  time 
given  the  missionaries  a  good  deal  of  trouble.  Deleteri- 
ous and  cruel  as  this  traffic  was,  the  wealthy  traders 


IQO  HISTO.RY   OF  THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  who  carried  it  on  found  means  to  interest  not  only  the 

XVIII         ^  * 

__  governor  general  in  their  behalf,  but  even   the   king's 

1677.  council,  on  the  pretext  that  it  was  necessary  to  secure 
the  good  will  of  the  Indians,  and  that  the  evils  of  it  were 
imaginary,  or  very  much  exaggerated.  For  once,  how- 
ever, philanthropy  triumphed  over  sordid  interest.  The 
J.678.  Bishop  of  Quebec,  having  visited  Paris,  obtained  a  decree 
•prohibiting  this  outrageous  traffic  under  heavy  penalties. 
The  disputes  between  the  governor  general  and  the  in- 
4682.  tendant  continued  to  increase.  Presently  they  were  both 
recalled,  their  places  being  supplied  by  M.  Be  la  Barre 
and  M.  Meules.  De  la  Barre,  on  arriving  at  New  France, 
found  fresh  troubles  commencing  with  the  Iroquois.  He 
called  an  assembly  of  notables,  to  take  the  state  of  the 
province  into  consideration,  composed  of  the  intendant, 
thp  bishop,  the  principal  military  officers,  several  mem- 
bers of  the\  council,  the  heads  of  the  inferior  jurisdic- 
tions, and  the  superiors  of  the  seminary  and  the  mis- 
sions. They  advised  not  to  begin  hostilities  till  full 
preparations  -were  made;  and  they  joined  in  a  repre- 
sentation to  the  king  of  the  necessity  of  sending  aid  to 
the  colony.  An  agent  was  accordingly  sent  to  France, 
to  whose  solicitations  the  king  granted  three  companies 
of  marines.  The  Baron  La  Hontan,  who  has  left  us 
lively  memoirs,  already  quoted,  of  his  adventures  and  ob- 
servations in  New  France,  was  an  officer  in  one  of  them. 
,  During  the  interval  of  peace  with  the  French,  the 
i  Five  Nations  had  directed  their  war  parties  with  new 
vigor  against  their  neighbors  of  the  south  and  west. 
We  have  already  seen  them  pushing  the  tribes  of  the 
Lower  Susquehannst  upon  the  settlements  of  Maryland, 
thus  causing  those  Indian  hostilities  which  gave  occa- 
sion to  Bacon's  rebellion.  Subsequently  they,  began 
to  come  in  contact  with  the  back  settlers  of  Virginia. 


NEW  FRANCE, 


101 


The  tribes  west  of  the  Blue  Ridge  and  on  the-  Upper  CHAPTEH 

XVIII 

Ohio,  few,  indeed,  in  numbers,  were  exterminated,,driven  -.  .  . 
away,  or  subdued.  The  Shawnese,  whom  Marquette  1682. 
had  heard  of  as  inhabiting  the  banks  of  the  Lower  Ohio, 
fled  eastward  before  these  formidable  warriors,  and  crossed 
the  mountains  into  Carolina.  The  conquests  of  the  Five 
Nations,  so  the  English  presently  claimed,  embraced  both^ 
banks  of  the  Ohio,  and  reached  to  the  Mississippi.  Their 
war  parties  wandered  to  that  distance,  and  some  scat- 
tered tribes  of  that  region  might  admit  their  superiority, 
and  pay  them  occasional  tribute.  Such,  also,  was  the 
case  with  all  the  tribes  in  what  is  now  Pennsylvania'; 
at  all  events,  it  became  the  policy  of  the  proprietaries  of 
that  province  to  recognize  the  superiority  of  the  Five 
Nations  over  all  the  s Indian  tribes^  and  lands  within  its. 
limits.  But  the  Cherokees  claimed  the  whole  region 
south  -of  the  Kenhawa  and  the  Ohio  as  their  hunting 
ground.  Even  the  pretensions  of  the  Five  Nations  to 
sovereignty  over  the  tribes  northwest  of  the  Ohio  seem 
to  rest  on  very  slender  grounds.  The  English,  in  after 
/years,  undertook  to  magnify  these  pretensions;  and,  in 
virtue  of  an  alleged  sovereignty  on  their  part  over  tHe 
Five  Nations,  to  set  them  up  in  counterpoise  to  the 
French  claim  by  discovery  and  occupation,  as  the  basis 
of  a  superior  English  title  to  the  wide  valley  of  the  Ohio 
and  the  Upper  Mississippi. 

Some  claim,  however,  to  those  regions,  the  Five  Na-  '  . 
tiorts  appear  to  have  had.     The  expedition  of  La  Salle      ; 
had  excited  their  jealousy.      They  attacked,  as  we  have 
seen,  his  post  on  the  Illinois ;  and,  before  long,  the  war 
with  Canada  broke  out  anew. 

-Dongan,  governor  of 'New  York,  though  himself  a  pa- 
pist, and  though  repeatedly  instructed  by  King  James  to 
.  keep  on  good  terms  with  ijae  French,  was  ;le$s  swayed 


102  HISTORY    OFTHE    UNITED    STATES** 

CHAPTER  by  religions  partialities  than  by  that  national  rivalry 
•    which,  w^th  the  progress  of  the  commercial  spirit,  began 
,    1'6&3.  to  run  more  and  more  irv  commercial  channels.      Don- 
gan  regarded  with  alarm  the  efforts  of  the  French  to  en- 
'   gross  the  Western' fur  trade;  nor  did  he  scruple  to  stim- 
ulajfce  the  antipathies  of  the  Five  Nations,  to  furnish  them 
witji  arms,  and  even  to  dissuade  them  from  the  peace  so- 
licited by  the  French  governor. 

The  aged  De  la  Barre  undertook  a  fruitless  expedition 
against  the  Iroquois,  in  which  his  army,  encamped  near 
Fort  Fro^ntenac,  suffered  terribly  from  intermittent  fever. 
,  1684.  He  was  soon  superseded  by  the  Marquis  de  Denonville, 
.  "who  arrived  at  Quebec  with  a  fresh  supply  of  five  or  six 
hundred  regular  troops N  from  France.       The  Intendant 
Meules  was  also  soon  superseded  by  M.  Be  Champigny, 
who  brought  out  some  -additional  companies  of  marines, 
followed  by  others  under  the  Chevalier  de  Vaudreuil. 
i  ,  As  peace  could  not  be  obtained  with  the  Iroquois, 
great  efforts  were  made  by  Denonville  to  subdue  the 
Senecas,  the  most  western  and  hostile  of  the'  clans.      To 
furnish  funds  for  this  enterprise,  "card  money"  was  is- 
" sued >. redeemable  in  bills  on  France — the  first  instance 
of 'paper  money  in  America.      Some  chiefs,  decoyed  into 
Fort  Frontenac,  were  treacherously  made  prisoners,  and 
'  .1      k  1687.  shipped  to  France  to  serve  in  the  galleys.      A  force  of 

s  eight  hundred  regulars,  one  thousand  Canadians,  and 
thr^ee  hundred  Indians,  proceeded  up  Lake  Ontario,  and 
penetrated  and  ravaged  the  Seneca  country.  A  fort 
built  at  Niagara  served  at  once  as  a  check  upon  the 
Seneoas  and  a  cover  to  the  route  from  Canada  through 
Lake  Erie.  But  the  Iroquois^in  their  turn,  threatened 
invasion  ;  and  the  French,  terrified  at  the  prospect,  pur- 
1688.  chased  peace  by  abandoning  their  fort,  and  promising  ta 
return  the  captives  they  had  entrapped.  ' 


NEW   FRANCE.  ,  JQ3 

This  peace,  however,  was  not  of  long  continuance.  CHAPTER 

New  misunderstandings  soon  arose.      The  Iroquois,  ad- 

vancing  on  the  Island^of  Montreal,  attacked  it  by  sur-  1689. 
prise,  killed  two  hundred  people,  made  as  many  prison-    Au&- 
ers,  and  spread  terror  and  alarm  as  far  as  Quebec.     Such 
was  the  unfortunate  predicament  of  the  French  colonists 
when  the  accession  of  William  to  the  English  throne  in- 
volved France  and  England  in  war. 

Canada,  though  long  planted,  had  not  flourished.  The 
soil  and  climate  were  alike  unfavorable.  The  colonial 
government  was  a  military  despotism  ;  the  land  was 
held  on  feudal  tenures ;  the  mass  of  the  colonists,  unac- 
customed to  think  or  act  for  themselves,  had  little  en- 
ergy, or  activity  of  spirit.  If  the  missionaries  and  fur 
traders  were  exceptions,  their. number  was  comparatively 
few,  and  their  undertakings  remote  and  scattered,  cal- 
culated to  disperse  over  a  vast  extent  a  scanty  popula- 
tion which  amounted  as  yet  to  hardly  twelve  thousand 
persons. 

Yet,  With  this  small  means,  the  persevering  enterprise 
of  the  missionaries  and  fur  traders  had  produced  remark- 
able results.  In  spite  of  a  protracted  Indian  war,  car- 
ried on  for  year's  against  the  most  formidable  -confederacy 
of  North  America,  far  more  dreadful  and  destructive  than 
any  thing  of  the  sort  encountered  by  any  English  colony, 
the  Canadians,  had.  made  themselves  familiar  with  the 
great  lakes  of  the  west;  They  had  studded  with  mis- 
sions the  shores  of  Huron,  Superior,  and  Michigan. 
They  had  explored  trie  Mississippi  from  the  Falls  of  St.  ,• 
Anthony  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  They  had  traced  the 
Fox  River,  the  Wisconsin, .  and  the  Illinois  from  their 
sources  to  their  mouths.  All  this  at  a  period  when  the 
upper  courses  of  .the  Connecticut,  the  Delaware,  the 
Susquehanna,  the  Potomac^  and  the  James  remained  as  ' 


104          HJSTO-RY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  yet  wholly  unknown,  and  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the 
•     •  '     Atlantic  slope  of  North  America  lay  an  unexamined  and 
V  1688.  unknown  wilderness. 

The  settlements  of  Acadie  were  still  more  feeble. 
On- the  Penobscot  was  the  establishment  of  Castin,  lately 
broken  up,  as  we  shall  see,  by  Andros,  but  again  reoc- 
cupied  by  that  veteran  Indian  trader.  At  the  mouth 
of  the  St.  Jdhn's  was  another  French  fort  and  trading 
jjost,  as,  in  the  time  of  La  Tour.  About  the  ancient 
town  of.  Port  Royal,  iand  higher  up  the  Bay  of  Fundy, 
at  Beau  Bassin^its  westernmost  head,  and  also  around 
the  Basin  of  Minas,  were  some  feeble  settlements.  But 
the  total  number  of  French  inhabitants  in  the  whole  of 
Acadie  did  not  exceed  two  or  three  thousand.  The  East- 
ern Indians,  however,  both  those  of  the  peninsula  and 
'those  of  the  main  land,  entirely  under  French  influence, 
added  much  to  the  strength  of  the  French  in  that  quarter. 


.   ~ 


-*  • 

NEW  ENGLAND  UN.RER  JAMES  II. 


was  pres*  CHAPTER 


CHAPTER    XIX- 

ROYAL  PROVINCE  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  JAMES  II.  .  REV- 
OLUJION  IN  MARYLAND  AND'  VIRGINIA.    DELAWARE  A 

SEPARATE  PROVINCE. 

S'.'P         '  •  :.•    .•  ••  . 

J\-lASSACHUSETTS,  her  charter  vacated, 

ently  alarmed  by  the  news  that  Colonel  Kirk,  late 

ernor  of  Tangier,  had  been  appointed  by  Charles  II.  royal  1684. 

governor  of  that  province.     But  the  king's  sudden  death  1685. 

vacated  this  commission,1  and  James  II.  found  employ-     Feb- 

ment  for  Kirk  at  home,  where  he  soon  made  himself  in- 

famous by  his  cruelties  in  suppressing  Monmouth's  boot- 

less insurrection.      Of  the  unfortunate  prisoners  taken 

on  that  occasion,  a  large  number  were  shipped  to  Ameri- 

ca, to  be  sold  as  indented  servants, 

James  II.  soon  ,issued  a  Declaration  of  Indulgence, 
suspending  all  the  persecuting  laws,  an  illegal  exercise 
of  authority  which  gave  great  offense  to  the  Estab- 
lished Church.  Even  the  Dissenters,  who  profited  by 
it,  saw  in  it  an  insidious  step  toward  the  re-establish-' 
ment  of  popery.  The  temporary  administration  of  Mas- 
sachusetts and  New  Hampshire  was  presently  intrusted 
by  the  new  king  to  a  president  and  council,  selected 
from  among  the  leading  members  of  the  moderate  party. 
The  president  was  Joseph  Dudley,  late  colonial  agent, 
but  now  one  of  the'  new  "prerogative  men."  Perceiving  ' 
that  the  reign  of  the  theocracy  was  ended,  like  several 
of  his  cotemporaries  and  many  other  politicians  before  and'  t, 
since,  Dudley  had  transferred  his  allegiance  to  the  rising 
power  ;  and,  having  gone  again  to  England,  had  found 


JQ.6    .  HIST.ORY.OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

v  » 

CHAPTER  means  to  recommend  Himself  there  as  a  person  whose 

'     XIX 

.  accommodating^  talents  and  local  knowledge  and  influ- 
1686.  £nce  might  make  him  very  useful  to  the  crown.  v 
May.  Though  eighteen  months  had  .elapsed  since  the  char- 
'ter  was  vacated,  the  government  was  still  going  on  as- 
before.  The  General  Court,  though  thinly  attended, 
was  in  session  when  the  riew  commission  arrived.  Dud- 
ley serjt  a  copy  of  it  to  the  -court,  not, as  recognizing  their 
authority,  but  as  to  a*i  assembly  of  principal  and  influ- 
ential inhabitants.  They  complained  of  the  commission 
as  arbitrary,  "  there  not  being  the  least  mention  of  an 
Assembly"  in  it ;  expressed  doubts  whether  it  were  safe 
for  him  or  them ;  and  then  gloomily  dissolved,  leaving  the 
government  in  Dudley's  hands. 

Besides  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire,  King's 
Province  was  also  included  under  Dudley's  jurisdiction. 
That  district,  the  southwestern  continental  half  of  the 
present  state  of  Rhode  Island,  notwithstanding  the  for- 
mer decision  of  the  royal  commissioners,  had  continued  a 
bone  of  .contention  between  Rhode  Island  and  Connecti- 
-  cut.  ^Benedict  Arnold  had  been  re-elected  governor  of 
Rhode  Island  in.  167 7,  followed  in  1679  by  John  Crans- 
ton, and  in  1680  by  Peleg  Sandford.  William  Cod- 
dington,  again  chosen  in  1683,  was  succeeded  in  1685 
by  Henry. Ball,  also  a  Quaker.  In  1686  Walter  Clarke 
was  chosen.  For  the  settlement  of  boundary,  disputes 
between  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  and  Plymouth,  and 
of  claims  to  lands  in  the  Narraganset  country,  a  new 
1683.  royal  commission  had  been  named,  with  Crattfield,  the 
•  late  governor  of  New  Hampshire,  at  its  head.  -.Its  mem- 
bers being  principally  selected  from  Massachusetts  and 
Connecticut,  Rhode  Island  had  objected  to  them  as  not 
impartial ;  and  when/  they  proceeded  to  hold  a  session 
within  the  disputed  territory,  the  Rhode  Island  Assern- 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  JAMES  II.  ^07 

bly  met  near  by,  and  sent  them  warning  by  sound  of  CHAPTER 
trumpet,   not   to    attempt   "  to  hold   court"   within  the. 
Rhode  Island  jurisdiction.      The  commissioners  having  1686. 
adjourned  to  Boston,  reported  to  the  king  that  the  juris- 
diction of  the  Narraganset  country  belonged  to  Connec- 
ticut, and  the  land  to  the  Atherton  Company.      But  the 
opposition  of  Rhode  Island  prevented  the  confirmation  of 
this  report,  and  King's  Province  was  now  included  in 
Dudley's  commission.     He  proceeded  to  organize  there  - 
an  independent  government,  and  took  it  upon  himself  to 
change  the  names  of  the  towns. 

Anxious  to  conciliate  his  fellow-colonists,  and  to  gloss 
over  his  own  desertion,  Dudley  made  as  few  innovations 
as  possible.  Some,  however,  were  not  to.be  avoided.  A 
religious  society,  worshiping  according  to  the  forms  of 
the  Church  of  England,  was  organized  in  Boston,  than 
which  nothing  could  have  been  more  mortifying  or  dis- 
tasteful to  the  ousted  theocracy.  The  Censorship  of  the 
press  was  taken  from  the  appointees  of  the  former  gov- 
ernment and  bestowed  upon  the  hated  Randolph. 

Hoping  to  dissipate  the  public  gloom  by  visions  of 
wealth,  Dudley  proposed  a  banking  company,  a  scheme 
borrowed  from  England,  where  similar  projects  were  be- 
ginning to  be  entertained.  He  also  joined  with  his  coun- 
cil in  an  address  -to  the  king,  recommending  "  a  well-reg- 
ulated Assembly"  as  "  extremely  needful."  But  he  en* 
countered  the  usual  difficulties  of  those  who  attempt  to 
please  two  opposite  parties.  The  colonists  looked  at  him 
:with  suspicion  and  dislike,  as  a  turn-coat  and  a  traitor; 
while  he  was  secretly  represented  by  Randolph,  in  his.* 
correspondence  with  England,  as  lending  himself  to  the 
purposes  of  the  "old  faction,"  and  neglecting  the  enforcer 
ment  of  the  acts  of  trade. 

Meanwhile   Quo  Warrcmtos  had  been  issued  against    July. 


lOg  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED   STAGES. 

'/ 

CHAPTER  the  governments  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island.  The 
.  ,  •  writs  were  served  by  the  ever-active  Randolph ;  but  pro- 
1686.  ceedings  were  stayed  on  the  promise  of  the  Assemblies  to 
submit  to  the  king's  pleasure.  Thus  was  the  way  at 
last  open  for  the  execution  of  the  so  long  favorite  but 
never  yet  realized  project  of  a  royal  governor  general  for 
l)ee.  20.  New  England.  That  office  was  -bestowed  upon  Sir  Ed- 
mund Andros,  late  governor  of  New  York,  now  knighted 
and  appointed  to  supersede  Dudley,  whose  administration 
had  lasted  but  seven  months.  The  government  assigned  to 
Andros  included,  besides  the  provinces  embraced  in  Dud- 
ley's commission,  Plymouth,  Rhode  Island,  and  Connect- 
icut. Plymouth  had  no  charter ;  the  other  two  colonies, 
as  we  have  just  seen,  had  judged  it  best,  instead  of  abid- 
ing the  process  of  Quo  Warranto,  to  throw  themselves 
on  the  king's  mercy,  with  an  expression  of  preference  to 
be  united  to  Massachusetts  rather  than  to  New  York. 

Andros  Came  out  in  the  Rose  frigate  with  two  com- 
panies of  soldiers,  the  first  English  troops  ever  stationed 
in  New  England,  and,  except  the  detachments  sent  by 
Cromwell  and  Charles  II.  for  the  conquest  of  New  Neth- 
erland,  the  first  ever  seen  there. 

The  new  governor  was  authorized,  by  his  commission, 
to  appoint  arid  remove  at  pleasure  the  members  of  the 
council,  and,  with  their  consent,  to  enact  laws,  to  levy 
taxes,  and  to  organize^  and  call  out  the  militia.  Like 
the  rest  of  James's  colonial  governors,  he  was  to  allow 
no  printing.  The  Church  of  England  was  to  be  favored, 
but  universal  toleration  was  promised.  The  new  gov- 
ernor was  to  protect  the  Indians  against  injuries  and  en- 
croachments, of  which  some  complaints  had  been  made ; 
he  was  to  enforce  the  acts  of  trade  ;  he  was  to  appoint 
to  office  only  persons  of  fair  character  and  competent 
estates. 


NEW  ENGLAND.  UNDER  JAMES'  II.  ^  Q  9 

Dudley  was  made   chief  justice  ;    West,  from  New 


York,  was  appointed  colonial  secretary,  but  was  pres-  _______ 

ently  superseded  by  Randolph.  Though  a  great  stickler  1686. 
for  the  old  theocracy,  Stoughton  had  yet  an  understand- 
ing with  Dudley,  and  he  occupied  a  seat  in  the  council. 
There  were  other  counselors  also  who  possessed  a  degree 
of  public  confidence  ;  but  care  was  taken  to  have  a  ma- 
jority whose  compliance  could  always  be  reckoned  on. 

Immediately  after  his  arrival  the  new  governor  de- 
manded the  surrender  of  the  Rhode  Island  charter.      It 
not  being  sent  to  him,  he  proceeded  thither,  and  dissolved  1687-, 
the  existing  government,  but  gave  to  some  of  the  prin-     Jatl- 
cipal  citizens  seats  in  his  council.     Plymouth,  of  which 
Thomas  Hinckley  had  been  governor  since  1680y  and 
lately  divided  into  three  counties,  was  also  absorbed. 

On  tys.  return  to  Boston,  Andros  caused  the  English 
Church  service  to  be  celebrated  in  the  South  meeting- 
house. In  vain  the  building  was  claimed  as  private 
property  ;  in  vain  the  sexton  refused  to  ring  the  bell. 
No  tenderness  was.  exhibited  like  that  of  the  king's  com- 
missioners twenty  years  before.  The  clergyman  came, 
forth  arrayed  in  the  hated  surplice,  and  the  Puritan  prej- 
udices of  Massachusetts  suffered  a  terrible  shock.  The 
foundation  was  laid'  of  an  Episcopal  Church,  and  the 
leaders  of  the  late  theocracy  were  even  insultingly  asked 
for  contributions  to  build  it.  James's  Declaration  of  Iri7 
dulgence  was  proclaimed,  and  now,  for  the  first  time, 
Quakers,  Baptists,  and  Episcopalians  enjoyed  toleration 
in  Massachusetts.  That  system  of  religious  tyranny,  co- 
eval with  the  settlement  of  New  England,  thus  unex- 
pectedly received  its  death-blow  from  a  Catholic  bigot, 
who  professed  a  willingness  to  allow  religious  freedom  to 
others  as  a  means  of  securing  it  for  himself.  It  is,  in-  . 
deed,  upon  this  compromise,  alone,  —  the  mutual  indul- 


HO  .HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  gence  of  a  few  powerful  sect's*  for  each  other — a  matter 
.          of  policy  rather  than  of  right,  that  a  partial  religious 
1687.  freedom  has  been  gradually  introduced  into  Christendom. 
Even  in  the  United  States  of  America,  however  the  Con- 
stitutions of  most  of  the  states  may  seem  to  guarantee 
it,  the-  abstract  right  of  opinion  is  hardly  any  where  prac- 
tically acknowledged- — a  consideration  to  be  very  seri- 
ously weighed  before  we  exult  too  loudly  over  the  past. 
Andros  and  his  .council  renewed  the  taxes  hitherto  im-, 
'posed  by  the  General  Court.      They  were  very  moderate 
in  amount,  "but  the  validity  of  any  tax  levied  without 
.  the  consent  of  the  people  was  denied,  and  on  that  ground 
payment  was  resisted.      The  recusants,   among  whom 
was  Wise,  minister  of  Ipswich,  when  arrested  for  this 
default,   in  vain   cited   Magna   Charta,    and   demanded 
writs  of  habeas  corpus.      It  was  said  in  Massachusetts, 
as  it  had  been  in  Virginia,  that  the  late  act  of  Parlia- 
;  *       ment  on   the   subject   of  that  writ   did  not   extend  to 
America.       Chief-justice  Dudley  pressed  matters  with 
an   energy   for    which    abundant   precedents   might    be 
found  in  the  doings  of  the  former  government,  and  now. 
as  then,   those  who  resisted  were  tried,   found  guilty, 
fined,  and  imprisoned.      What  gave  still  greater  offense, 
the   Quakers  and  other  Dissenters  were  encouraged  by 
Andros  to  refuse  payment  of  the  taxes  levied  by  the 
towns  for  the  support  of  the  ministers. 

Oct.  .  In  the  autumn,  attended  by  an  armed  guard,  Andros 
proceeded  to  Hartford,  where,  the  Assembly  of  Connecti- 
cut was,  in  session.  The  office  of  governor  w,as  held  by 
Robert  Treat,  who  had  succeeded  to  it  seven  years  be- 
fore on  Leet's  death,  .and  h,ad  since  been  annually  re- 
elected.  -The  charter,  of  which  Andros  demanded  the 
'  surrender,  was  produced  and  laid  upon  -the  table  of  the 
court.  A  warm  debate*  etisued,  protracted  into  the 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  JAMES  II< 

night,  when  suddenly  the  lights  were  extinguished,  and 
the  charter,  snatched  in  the  darkness  by  a  trusty  hand., 
was  conveyed  away,  and  concealed  in  the  hollow  of  a  I687r 
neighboring  oaR.  Andros  '  declared  the  charter  govern- 
ment at  an  end,  and  Connecticut  "to  be  a  part  of  his  ju- 
risdiction. He  appointed  two  of  the  inhabitants  members 
of  his  council,  and  after  the  last  entry  in  the  records  of  the 
General  Court,  with  his  own  hand  wrote  the  word  "Finish 
The  administration  of  Andros  in  Massachusetts  grew 
day  by  day  more  unpopular.  Oaths  were  required  to 
be  administered,  not  by  holding  up  the  right  hand,  after 
the  Puritan  fashion,  but  by  laying  the  hand  on  the  Bi- 
ble ;  and  this  interference  with  their  own  prejudices  was 
esteemed  a  great  grievance  by  those  who  had  so  con- 
temptuously slighted  the  scruples  of  the  Quakers  and 
others.  The  celebrating  of  marriages,  no  longer  exer- 
cised by,  the  magistrates,  as  had  been  the  case  under  the 
old  charter,  was  confined  to  Episcopal  clergymen,  of 
whom  there  was  but  one  in  the  province.  It  was  neces- 
sary to  come  to  Boston  in  order  to  be  married.  The  ex-' 
isting  taxes  not  proving  sufficient,  new  ones  were  im- 
posed. The  fees  ' of  all  public  offices-  were ,  greatly  in- 
creased ;  those  for  the  probate  of  wills  and  settlement  of 
estates  at  least  twenty  fold.  What  was  most  grievous 
of  all,  a  source  of  profit  to  the  royal  officers,  and  of  ter- 
ror and  alarm  to  the  colonists,  writs  of  intrusion  were 
issued  against  many  of  the  principal  inhabitants  for  al- 
leged defects  in  the  title  to  their  lands,  for  which  many 
compounded  by  paying  heavy  fees  for  the  issue  of  new 
patents.  All  town  meetings,  except  for  the  choice  of 
town  officers,  were  prohibited ;  and  a  regulation  was  es- 
tablished similar  to  that  of  New  York  and  other  prov- 
inces, forbidding  any  one  to  leave  the  colony  without  the 
governor's  pass. 


112  HISTORY    OF  -THE   UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER   '.    This  regulation  was  evaded,  however,  by  Increase 
.  Mather,,  against  whom  Randolph  had  commenced  a  suit 
1688.  for  defamation  of  character — a  species  of  warfare  suc- 
.  APri^    cessfully  employed  agairist  Randolph  himself  in  former 
years.     Mather  avoided  the .  service  of  the  writ,  and  se- 
cretly embarked  for  England,  loaded  with  complaints 
against  the  governor. 

Andros  meanwhile  undertook  an  expedition  to  Pe- 
nobscot,  and,  under  pretense  that  the  English  limits  ex- 
tended to  .the  St.  Croix,  he  plundered  the  fort  and  trad- 
ing 'house  of  the  Baron  Castin,  the  successor  of  D'Aul- 
ney  and  La  Tour  in  the  Indian  traffic  on  that  coast. 
Castin  revenged  himself  by  stirring  up  t.he  Eastern  In- 
aians,  over  whom  he  had  great  Influence,  to  attack  the 
English  settlements. 

Under  a  charge  of  violations  of  the  acts  of  trade,  writs 
of  Quo  War r ant o  had  been  issued  against  the  proprie- 
taries of  East  and  West  Jersey,  a  proceeding  which 
they  thought  it  useless  to  resist.  Both  these  provinces, 
along^  with  New  York,  which,  by  James's  accession  to 
the  throne,  had  become  a  royal  province,  were  presently 
annexed  to  the  government  of  New  England,  and  placed 
"  under  the  command  of  Andros,  whose  commission  now 
included,  if  we  except  Pennsylvania,  the  whole  extent 
of  the  original  New  England.  Hastening  to  New'  York 
to  supersede  Dongan,  toward  whom  he  cherished  no  very 
good  feeling,  Andros  ^installed  Francis  Nicholson  as  his 
lieutenant  there. , 

^The  ravages  of  the  Indians  on  the  eastern  frontier 

soon  recalled  the  governor  to  that  quarter.     After  a  vain 

Nov.     attempt  at  conciliation,  he  marched  against  the  Indians 

with  seven  hundred  men.      They  fled,  and  he  pursued 

through  the  snow.      He  built  some  forts  for  defense  on 

•  the  Androscoggin,  but  did  not  succeed  in  bringing  the 


NEW  ENGLAND   UNDER  JAMES   II.  ]_  ^  3 

Indians  to  terms.     Meanwhile  the  people  of  Massachu-  CHAPTER 

XIX 

setts  showed  their  disgust  at  his  rule  by  refusing  to  ob-      ' 

f  ,  ,  ^w 

serve  the  annual  thanksgiving,  that  ancient  festival  of  1688,  - 
the  colony,  of  which  Andros,  in  accordance  with  previous 
usage,  had  assumed  the  appointment.     .    '  . 

While  Massachusetts  was  thus  discontented,  a.  revolu- 
tion was  on  foot  in  England.  The  birth  to  James  of  an  . 
infant  son  and  heir,  threatening  to  fix  a  popish  dynasty 
on  the  country,  overthrew  the  hopes  hitherto  cherished  of 
a  Protestant  succession  in  the  persons  of  James's  daugh- 
ters, Mary  and  Anne.  The  Declaration  of  Indulgence, 
and  the  imprisonment  of  the  six  bishops,  had  roused 
against  James  the  High  Church  and  High  Tory  party, 
hitherto  his  main  support.  The  down-trodden  Whigs 
recovered  their  courage.  William  of  Orange,  the  ablest 
Protestant  prince  in  Europe,  Stadtholder  of  Holland,  and 
husband  of  Mary,  James's  eldest  daughter,  upon  repeat- 
ed invitations,  presently  landed  in  England  with  a,  body  Nov.  5. 
of  Dutch  troops  ;  and  James,  finding  himself  deserted  by 
his  soldiers,  his  ministers,  and  even  his  family,  sought 
safety  in  flight. 

News  of  the  landing  of  William  in  England,  and  a  1689.v 
printed  copy  of  his  Declaration,  presently  reached  Boston  April  4. 
by  way  of  Virginia.      Rumors  of  change  had  recalled 
Andros  from  the  eastward;  but  he  affected  to  disbelieve 
the  news,  and  imprisoned  those  who  brought.it.      The 
people,  however,  gave  eager  credence  to  a  story  so, con- 
formable to  their  wishes,  and  a  popular  insurrection  was  April  18. 
soon  arranged.       The  commander  of  the  Rose  frigate, 
which  lay  in  the  harbor,  was  seized  as  he  landed  from 
his  boat.    ''The  sheriff,  w;ho  sought  to  disperse  the  mob, 
was  made  prisoner.      The  militia  assembled  in  arms  set 
the  town  house,  and  organized  under  their  old  officers. 
Andros,   in   alarm,   retired  4with   his   council  to   a  fort 
II.— H 


114  HlSTOJtY  0>  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

within  the  town,  which  crowned  a  hill  near  the  wa- 


XIX  ' 

'•  .  •  '  •  ter'a  edge,  still  known  as  Fort  Hill.  Bradstreet,  now 
1689.  an  old  man  of  eighty  -seven,  having  caught  the  eye  of 
the  assembled  militia,  was  reproclaimed  as  governor. 
The  magistrates  under  the  old  charter,  with  some  other 
of  the  chief  inhabitants  of  Boston,  formed  themselves 
into  a  Council  of  Safety.  A  declaration  was  published 
from  the  ready  pen  of  Cotton  Mather,  and  Andros  was 
summoned  to  surrender.  The  water  battery  was  taken 
without  resistance,  those  who  held  it  retiring  into  the 
upper  fort.  A  barge,  sent  from  the  frigate  to  take  off 
the  governor  and  his  party,  was  intercepted  and  captured. 
The  guns  of  the  battery  being  turned  against  the  fort, 
Andros  yielded,  and,  along  with  Dudley,  Randolph, 
and  his  other  chief  partisans,  was  committed  to  prison. 
Aware  of  having  "  a  wolf  by  the  ears,"  the  more  pru- 
dent leaders  would  have  allowed  the  prisoners  to  es- 
cape ;  but  the  people  were  very  clamorous  for  their  pun- 
ishment, and  it  was  found  necessary  to  detain  eight  of 
them  without  bail.  Andros,  indeed,  by  the  connivance 
of  a  sentinel,  escaped  from  the  jail,  but  he  was  arrested 
in  Rhode  Island  and  brought  back. 

Plymouth  took  advantage  of  this  insurrection  to  re- 
instate her  old  government,  with  Hinckley  again  at  its 
head.  Connecticut  also  resumed  her  charter,  now 
brought  forth  from  its  hiding  place,  and  Robert  Treat 
May.  was  again  chosen  governor,  an  office  which  he  held  for 
the  next  seven  years.  Similar  steps  were  taken  in  Rhode 
Island,  though  there  was  some  difficulty  there  in  finding 
magistrates  willing  to  assume  the  responsibilities  of  of- 
fice. Henry  Bull,  a  sturdy  Quaker,  governor  four  years 
before,  at  last  consented  to  accept  that  place. 

In  Massachusetts  the  question  of  the  resumption  of 
the  charter  was  referred  to  the  people  in-  their  town  meet- 


WILLIAM  AND  MARY' IN  VIRGINIA.  Jjg 

ings.      They  voted,  by  a  large  majority,  to  resume  it ;  CHAPTER 
but  the  Council  of  Safety  feared  to  commit  themselves ;     .~, 
some  of  them  desired  some  modification  in  the  charter ;  1689. 
they  would  only  agree  to  carry  on  the  government  tem- 
porarily, "  till,  by  direction  from  England,  there  be  an 
orderly  settlement."      The  moderate  party,  now  numer- 
ous and  powerful,  were,  in  fact,  opposed  to  the  resump- 
tion of  the  charter  without  essential  modifications.      In- 
formation had  already  arrived  of  the  accession  of  Will-  May  26. 
iam  and  Mary  ;  and  these  revolutionary  sovereigns  had 
been  joyfully  proclaimed.      Sir  Henry  Ashurst,  a  person 
of  note  among  the  English  Dissenters,  was  made  joint 
agent  with  Mather  to  solicit  the  affairs  of  the  colony  at    June, 
the  English  court.      Cooke  and  Oakes,  two  very  zealous 
partisans  of  the  old  charter,  were  added  on  behalf  of  the 
deputies. 

The  "  dominion  of  Virginia" — a  style  which  now  be- 
gan to  come  into  use — had  been  the  first  of  the  colonies 
to  receive  news  of  the  Revolution ;  but  the  council  had 
been  very  slow  to  act  upon  it.  The  people,  a  good  deal 
alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  a  papist  dynasty,  and  influ- 
enced by  the  preaching  of  John  Waugh,  a  minister  of 
Stafford  county,  threatened  insurrection ;  but  the  council  ' 
succeeded  in  maintaining  their  authority,  and  only  after 
repeated  commands  to  that  effect  from  the  Privy  Coun- 
cil in  England  were  orders  at  length  issued  for  proclaim-  May  23." 
ing  William  and  Mary  "  Lord  and  Lady  of  Virginia." 

While  these  events  transpired  in  New  England  and 
Virginia,  New  York  was  in  a  great  state  of  agitation. 
The  only  military  force  in  the  city  appears  to  have  been 
the  five  militia  companies,  of  which  Bayard,  a  member 
of  the  council,  was  colonel,  and  Jacob  Leisler,  a  mer- 
chant, distinguished  by  his  zeal  against  popery,  the  senior 
captain.  The  good  people,  of  the  city,  zealous  Protest- 


HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 


CHAPTE£  ants,  were  much  aggrieved  that  a  popish  collector  of  the 
_____  customs,  appointed  by  James's  order,  was  still  continued 
1689.  in  office.  A.  rumor  even  spread  of  a  terrible  plot  and 
intended  massacre  by  the  adherents  of  the  deposed  king. 
A  mol?,  followed  by  the  five  militia  companies  in  arms, 
surrounded  the  house  of,  Leisler,  who  was  thus  induced 
to  j)ut  himself  at  the  head  of  a  movement  for  seizing  the 
June  i.  fort.  The  fort  was  seized,  and  the  public  money  in  it. 
The  five  companies  did  garrison  duty  alternately.  Bay- 
ard, their  colonel,  attempting  to  disperse  them,  was  oblig- 
ed to  fly  for  his  life.  Nicholson's  demand  for  the  public 
r  money  was  disregarded;  and  the  militia,  to  the  number 
of  four  hundred,  signed  an  agreement  to  hold  the  fort 
"  for  the  present  Protestant  power  that  rules  in  En- 
gland." A  Committee  of  Safety  of  ten  members,  Dutch, 
Huguenot,  and  English;  constituted  Leisler  "  captain 
of  the  fort."  They  also  authorized  him  "to  use  the 
power  and  authority  of  commander-in-chief  until  orders 
shall  come  from  their  majesties,"  and  "to  do  all  such 
acts  as  are  requisite  for  the  good  of  the  province,  tak- 
ing, council  with  the  militia  and  civil  authority  as  oc- 
casion may  require."  A  deputation  soon  arrived  from 
Connecticut  to  congratulate  the  "  loyal  and  noble  cap- 
tain" on  the^  stand  he  had  taken.  Having  caused  Will- 
iam to  be  proclaimed  at  the  sound  of  the  trumpet,  Leis- 
ler addressed  a  letter  to  the  new  king,  setting  forth  the 
grounds  ,of  his  proceedings,  .and  accounting  also  for  the 
expenditure  of  the  public  money  seized  in  the  fort.  He 
had  employed  a  part  of  it  in  the  erection  of  a  new  bat- 
tery of  six  guns  at  the  southern  extremity  of  the  city,  to 
protect  the  harbor  against  hostile  cruisers. 

Finding  that  Leisler  carried  the  great  body  of  the  in- 
habitants with  him,  and  was  likely,  also,  to  be  supported 
from  New  England,1  Nicholson  adopted  the  advice  of  his 


INSURRECTION  IN  MARYLAND. 


117 


council,  and  departed  for  the  mother  country  to  give  an  CHAPTER 

account  of  the  state  of  affairs,  and  to  represent  "  how  fa- ' 

tal  it  had  been  for  New  York  to  be  annexed  to  Boston."  16&9. 
The  members  of  the  council  retired  to  Albany,  where  they  August. , 
still  claimed  to  be  the  true  governors  of  the  province,  prq- 
fessing,  indeed,  no  less  zeal  for  the  new  sovereigns  than 
Leisler  himself,  whom  they  denounced,  however,   as  a 
"  Philistine"  and  «  arch  rebel." 

Leisler  found  a  new  assistant  in  Ids  son-in-law  Mil-  . 
bourne,  who  now  arrived  from  England,  and  was  appoint-    x 
ed  his  secretary.      Alarmed  by  a  threatened  attack  from 
Canada,  Albany  had  asked  aid  of  New  York,  and  Mil- 
.   bourne  proceeded  thither  with  three  Vessels  and  a  body  X)f   • 
men.      But  as  the  members  of  the  old  council  refused  to 
recognize  Leisler's  authority  or  to  give  up  the  fort,  after 
some   altercation,  to   avoid  bloodshed,   Milbourne  came 
back  again,  leaving  Albany  to  its  fate.      Thereupon  the 
Albanians  asked  and  obtained  aid  from  Connecticut. 

Maryland  also,  as  well  as  New  England  and  New 
York,  became  the  scene  of  an  anti-Catholic  revolution. 
During  Lord  Baltimore's  absence  in  England  to  attend 
to  the  suit  against  his  charter,  the  ultra-Protestant  party 
'in  that  province  found  a  new  leader  in  one  Coode,  late  a 
confederate  in  Fendal's  insurrection,  but  who,  at  that 
time,  had  escaped  conviction.  Taking  occasion  from  a 
treaty  with  the  neighboring  Indians,  just  then  renewed,  March, 
and  attended  with  the  customary  distribution  of  pres- 
ents, Coode  spread  a  story  that  the  papists  who  admin- 
istered the  government  had  leagued  with  the  Indians  to 
cut  off  the  Protestants.  The  Protestants  in  the  col-- 
ony  were  far  more  numerous  than  the  papists,  to  say 
nothing  of  assistance  to  be  expected  from  Virginia  and 
the  other  colonies.  Yet  this  ridiculous  story  easily 
found  credit  among  heated,  partisans,  anxious  to  believe 


118  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  it.  Discontents  and  suspicions  were  still  further  aggra- 
.  vated  by  the  delay  of  President  Joseph  and  the  council 

1689.  to  proclaim  the  revolutionary  sovereigns.  Informed  of 
•this  delay,  the  ministers  of  William  threatened  Lord 
Baltimore  with  parliamentary  inquiry  and  the  loss  of  his 
charter.  He  sent  out  a  special  messenger,  with  renew- 
ed orders  to  proclaim  William  and  Mary.  But,  before 
Jyily.  those  orders  arrived,  a  revolution  had  broken  out.  At 
the  head  of  seven  hundred  men,  Coode,  lately  convict- 
ed of  blasphemy  and  treason,  marched  upon  St.  Mary's, 
which  the  militia  refused  to  defend.  St.  Inigoe's  Fort 
surrendered  upon  capitulation ;  and  by  the  title  of  the 
."  Association  in  arms  for  the  defense  of  the  Protestant 
religion,"  having  issued  a  manifesto  against  Lord  Balti- 
more, full  of  exaggerations  and  falsehoods,  Coode  and  his 

August,  associates  called  a  Convention  to  take  the  affairs  of  the 
province  into  consideration.  Though  all  the  counties 
were  not  represented,  this  Convention  did  not  hesitate 
to  depose  Lord  Baltimore  on  the  charge  of  misgovern- 
ment,  and,  having  proclaimed  William  and  Mary,  to  in- 
sert their  names  into  all  public  acts  in  place  of  the  pro- 
prietary's. To  the  new  sovereigns  they  transmitted  an 
address  congratulating  their  accession  and  asking  support. 
Arriving  in  England  while  King  James  was  yet  in 
power,  Mather  had  been  graciously  received  by  that  mon- 
arch. He  carried  with  him  an  address  from  the  minis- 
ters, thanking  James,  on  behalf  of  themselves  and  their 
brethren,  for  his  Declaration  of  Indulgence.  But,  though 
repeatedly  admitted  to  an  audience,  his  complaints  against 
the  royal  governor  had  produced  no  effect.  The  Revo- 
lution intervening,  he  hastened,  with  greater  hopes  of 
success,  to  address  himself  to  the  new  king,  and  his  re- 
monstrances prevented,  so  far  as  Massachusetts  was  con- 
cerned, the  dispatch  of  a  circular  letter  confirming  the 


• 

LEISLER   GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  YORK.  ^9 

authority  of  all  colonial  officers  holding  commissions  from  CHAPTER 

James  II.      The  letters  actually  received  at  Boston  au- _ 

thorized  those  in  authority  to  retain  provisionally  the  1689. 
administration,  and  directed  that  Andros  and  the  other 
prisoners  should  be  sent  to  England.  Similar  letters 
were  sent  to  Maryland,  under  authority  of  which  the  in- 
surgents of  that  province  retained  the  administration  for 
the  next  three  years. 

Some  three  months  later,  and  shortly  after  Milbourne's 
return  from  Albany,  a  royal  letter  arrived  at  New  York,  Dec. 
addressed  to  "  such  as,  for  the  time  being,  administer 
affairs,"  inclosing  a  commission  as  governor  for  Nichol- 
son. As  Nicholson  was  absent  on  his  way  to  England, 
Leisler,  quite  intoxicated  with  command,  construed  the 
king's  letter  into  a  confirmation  of  his  authority.  He  as- 
sumed the  title  of  lieutenant  governor,  issued  warrants  to 
arrest  Bayard,  Livingston,  and  Nichols,  his  most  active  op- 
ponents ;  sent  Milbourne  anew  to  Albany  to  demand  the 
surrender  of  that  city  ;  and  presently  called  an  Assembly 
to  provide  means  for  carrying  on  the  war  against  Canada, 
in  which  the  accession  of  William  had  involved  New  York 
and  New  England. 

Mather,  meanwhile,  was  zealously  urging,  at  the  court 
of  William  III.,  the  cause  of  his  constituents.  But  the 
complaints  against  Andros,  coolly  received  by  the  Privy r_; 
Council,  were  dismissed  by  order  of  the  new  king,  on  the 
ground  that  nothing  was  charged  against  the  late  gov- 
ernor which  his  instructions  would  not  fully  justify.  The 
charters  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  never  having 
been  formally  annulled,  and  having  already  been  reas- 
sumed,  were  pronounced  by  the  English  lawyers  still  in 
full  force.  Had  Massachusetts  resumed  with  equal 
promptitude  and  decision,  her  charter,  it  is  possible, 
might  also  have  been  preserved.  But  the  Council  of 


120  JIISTORY  OF    THE   UNITEt)   STATES. 

CHAPTER  Safety,  as  we  have-  seen,  had  preferred  to  wait  for  au- 
•  ,  thority  from  England ;  the  moderate  party  wished,  in- 
1 689.  deed,  for  some  modifications  in  the  government.  The 
English  lawyers  held  that  the  judgment  which  Massa- 
chusetts- had  persisted  in  braving  was  binding  and  valid 
in  law  until  reversed  by  writ  of  error,  of  which  there 
was  little  or  no  hope.  Mather  and  his  colleagues  solicited 
'  of  King  "William  a  restoration  of  the  charter,  and  they 
found  warm  support  from  the  leaders  of  the  Presbyteri- 
an Nonconformists,  to  whom  the  recent  revolution  had 
restored  a  degree  of  political  influence.  Even  Tillotson, 
the  Low  Church  and  Latitudinarian  archbishop,  spoke  a 
word  in  their  behalf ;  while  the  Convention  Parliament 
— that  body  which  arranged  with  "William  the  terms  ef 
his  accession  to  the  throne — denounced  the  taking  away 
of  the  New  England  charters  as  a  grievance.  A  bill  to 
set  aside  the  judgment  of  forfeiture  was.  introduced  into 
that  body,  but  its  progress  was  cut  short  by  an  unex- 
pected dissolution.  In  the  succeeding  Parliament  the 
Tdry  and  High  Church  interest  was  more  powerful,  and 
from  that  body  there  was  nothing  to  be  hoped.  King 
William  promised,  indeed,  a  new  charter,  but  his  notions 
,  of  prerogative  were  high,  and  Somers,  his  principal 
fepunselor,  insisted  upon  important  modifications.  The 
,new  charter,  as  presently  granted,  differed  very  materi- 
ally from  the  old  one.  That  independence  which  Mas- 
sachusetts, since  its  first  plantation,  had  so  pertinaciously 
claimed  and  so  largely  enjoyed,  was  destined  to  undergo 
a  long  suspension.  Theocracy,  which  had  founded  and 
so  long  had  ruled  the  colony,  deprived  of  its  .political  su- 
premacy, and  reduced  to  a  mere  party  in  the  state,  was  to 
'see,  one  after  another,  all  its  favorite  ideas  of  social  pol- 
ity abandoned,  not,  however,  without  lingering  in  the 
laws  of  the  province,  and  still  more  so  in  the  spirit  of  the- 


. 

• 

DELAWARE  A  SEPARATE   PROVINCE.  J2 

people,  leaving,  indeed,  to  this  day  many  evident  and  CHAPTER 

./•*_  9'>         **  XIX. 

characteristic  traces  of  its  former  empire.  

The  downfall  of  James  II.  was  fatal  to  Penn's  favor  1689s. 

>'<•>*  t        ••  •*     * 

at  court.     His  favor,  indeed,  with  the  deposed  monarch 

now  became  a  source  of  suspicion  against  him.     He  was 
twice  arrested  on  a  charge  of  treasonable  correspondence 
with  the  fugitive  king,  but  was  discharged  for  want  of 
proof.    Hardly  safe  at  home,  he  again  turned  his  thoughts 
to  America,  where  he  proposed  to  found  a  new  city  on 
the  banks  of  the  Susquehanna.     Just  as  he  was  getting 
ready  to  embark,  he  was  accused  a  third  time  by  an  un-  1691. 
principled  informer,  to  shield  himself  against  whose'  peiv  January- 
juries  he  judged  it  best  to  keep  concealed. 

The  people  of  the  three  lower  counties  had  evinced  for 
some  time  a  growing  jealousy  of  Philadelphia  and  the 
new  settlements  up  the  Delaware.  They  feared  soon  to 
be  reduced  to  comparative  insignificance,  and,  not  alto- 
gether relishing  a  Quaker  supremacy,  th6y  began  to 
question  by  what  authority  they  had  been  annexed  to 
Pennsylvania,  and,  indeed,  whether  Penn  had  any  rights 
at  all  of  jurisdiction  over  a  territory  of  which  he  might 
possess,  the  property  by  deed  from  the  Duke  of  York, 
but  of  which  he  had  no  royal  patent  conveying  rights 
of  government.  Penn  wrote  to  some  of  his  friends  in 
those  counties,  claiming  to  have  a  royal  patent,  and  au- 
thorizing them,  should  there  be  occasion  for  it,  so  to  al- 
lege ;  but  no  other  proof  of  the  existence  of  such  a  docu- 
ment any  where  appears.  No  doubt  he  had  intended 
to  obtain  one,  but  was  prevented  by  the  Revolution  which 
drove  James  from  his  throne. 

After  the  recall  of  Blackwell,  Penn  left  the  question 
of  the  appointment  of  a  deputy  to  the  discretion  of  the 
council.  Oh  this  point  a  difference  arose.  Markham, 
with  six  of  the  Delaware  pounselors,  seceded,  and  set 


122  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  up  a  separate  government,  to  which  arrangement  Penn 

-         reluctantly  consented.     He  appointed  Markham  his  dep- 

1691.  uty  for  the  Delaware  counties,  and  Lloyd  for  Pennsyl- 

June-    vania ;  but,  before  long,  he  found  himself  deprived,  by 

an  order  of  the  Privy  Council,  of  the  administration  of 

both  provinces. 


>   .   "    .  - 


• 


ACCESSION  OF  WILLIAM  III. 


123 


CHAPTER   XX. 

'ACCESSION  OF  WILLIAM  in.    COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE 

FIRST  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR. 

rp 

JL  HE  revolution  which  placed  William  of  Orange  on  CHAPTER 

the   British    thrones    effectually   restrained   that    regal  .- 
power  which  had  threatened,  as  well  in  America  as  in  1689. 
England,  the  total  extinction  of  popular  rights.      That 
revolution,  however,   was  far  from  being   an  unmixed 
benefit  to  the  colonies.     By  strengthening  the  Parlia-i' . 
ment,  and  increasing  the  influence  of  the  manufactur- 
ing class,  it   exposed  the  American  plantations  to  in- 
creased danger  of  mercantile  and  parliamentary  tyranny, 
of  which,  in  the  acts  of  trade,  they  already  had  a  fore- 
taste— a  tyranny  far  more  energetic,  persevering,  grasp- 
ing, and  more  to  be  dreaded  than  any  probable  exercise 
of  merely  regal  authority. 

The  main  supporters  of  the  revolutionary  government 
were  the  Low  Church  party,  fast  verging  at  this  period 
toward  Latitudinarianism,  and  the  Presbyterian  dissent- 
ing interest,  verging  also  the  same  way — a  body  still  * 
numerous  and  powerful  in  the  English  towns  and  cities, 
though  many  of  its  members  were  from  time  to  time 
sliding  back  into  the  Church.  The  Low  Churchmen 
represented  the  Presbyterian  section  of  the  old  Puritan 
party  j  the  Nonconformists  stood  in  the  place  of  the  Inde- 
pendents ;  and  they  succeeded  at  the  Revolution  in  estab- 
lishing, as  a  piece  of  fundamental  British  policy,  the  tol*.  f. 
eration  of  all  Protestant  sects,  a  policy  from  that  time 
forward  enforced  in  the  colonies  as  well  as  at  home. 


124  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

r 

CHAPTER  This  toleration,  however,  did  not  extend  to  Catholics, 

XX.  ,  * 

exposed  now,  without  the  shelter  of  royal  favor,  to  the 

'  1688.  effects  of  that  bitter  traditional  hatred  of  which  they  were 
the  objects.  Hence,  cotemporaneously  with  toleration 
for  all  Protestants,  the  completion  of  that  system  of  per- 
secuting anti-Catholic  statutes,  for  a  century  or  more  the 
opprobrium  of  the  British  code,  and  which  did  not  lack 
imitations  in  America.  .  , 

Though  the  Revolution  found  its  truest  and  most  cer- 
,  tain  support  at  the  hands  of  the  Low  Churchmen  and  the 
Nonconformists  who  composed  the  party  of  the  English 
Whigs,  the  high  ideas  which  William  entertained  of  re- 
gal authority  inclined  him  to  coalesce  with  the  Tories  and. 
the  High  Church  party.  So  far,  indeed,  as  relates  to  the 
administration  of  the  colonies,  he  seems  to  have  abated 
nothing  of  any  pretensions  set  up  by  his  predecessors. 

To  the  bills  of  rights  which,  in  imitation  of  the  Con- 
vention Parliament,  the  colonial  Assemblies  hastened  to 
enact,  William  gave  decided  and  repeated  negatives. 
The  provincial  acts  for  establishing  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus  experienced  a  similar  fate.  That  prohibition  of 
printing,  introduced  by  James  II.  into  his  instructions  to 
the  royal  governors,  was  still  continued  by  the  new  king. 
,  .Even  such  Whig  statesmen  as  Somers,  Locke,  and 
'Chief-justice  Holt  still  recognized  in  the  colonies  an  ex- 
tent of  royal  prerogative  which  they  denied  at  home, 
being  Willing  to  restrict  the  colonists  to  such  portion  of 
English  rights  as  had  been  specially  conceded  to  them 
by  some  king, 

"  The  state  papers  demonstrate,"  says  the  industrious 
Chalmers,  "  that  the  most  renowned  jurists  of  the  reign 
of  William  had  formed  no  complete  .conception  of  the 
nature  of  the  connective  principle  between  the  parent 
country  and  her  colonies  ;  of  the  extent  of  the  royal  pre- 


ACCESSION   OF  .WILLIAM  III.  ^^5 

rogative  as  applied  to  the  government  of  each,  while  the  CHAPTER 
jurisdiction  of  Parliament  was  by  all  admitted  to  foe  co- .' 
extensive  with  the  boundaries  of  the  empire.      Contrary  1688. 
to  the  Declaration  of  Rights,  Chief-justice  Holt  advised 
his  sovereign  to  assume  the  government  of  Maryland  on 
a  suppose^  necessity,  without  any  form  of  law,  with     "(   • 
whom,  however,  afterward  concurred  Sir  Edward  North  - 
ey  and  Sir  Simon  Harcourt.     Sir  Thomas  Trevor  doubt- 
ed how  far  the  Marylanders  were  entitled  to  the  benefit 
of  the    Great  Charter.      The  most  respectable  cabinet 
which  William  III.  ever   enjoyed,  composed   of  Lords      . 
Somers.  Pembroke,  Shrewsbury,  Bridgewater,  Romney, 
Godolphin,   and   Sir  William  Trumbull,  denied  to  the 
New  English  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus, 
because  i  it  had  never  been  conferred  on  the  colonists 
by  any  king  of  England,'  plainly  supposing  that  the  ', 
most  important  of  all  rights,  the  best  security  of  per- 
sonal liberty,  must  result  from  a  grant  of  the  crown  to 
a  subject  beyond  the  -, ocean.       Mr.  Locke,   with  .other 
philosophers,  solemnly  advised  that  prince  to  appoint  a 
captain  general  over  the  colonies,  with  dictatorial  power 
to  levy  and  command  an  army  without  their  own  con- 
sent, or  even  the  approbation  of  Parliament."     We  may 
add,  that  Chiefvjustice  Holt,  while  deciding  on  the  bench 
(Smith  v.  Brown,  Salkeld's  Reports,  666.      Holt's  Re- 
ports, 495)  that,  "  as  soon  as  a  negro  comes  into  ,En- 
gland,  he  is  free ;"  that  in  England  there  is  no  slavery, 
wherefore  an  action  for  the  price  of  negroes  sold  will  not 
lie  £  "admitted,,  at  the  same  time,  that,  had  the  contract 
been  set  forth  as  made  in  Virginia,  with  an  allegation  that, 
slavery  was  lawful  there,  the  action  might  lie,  "  because 
the  laws  of  England  do  not  extend  to  Virginia;   being  a 
conquered  country,  their  law  is  what  the  king  pleases  ; 
of  which  we  can  not  take  notice  if  it  be  not  set  forth." 


126  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES: 

CHAPTER-;  -  Whatever  the  result  of  the  accession  of  William  upon 

the  metropolitan  relations  of  the  colonies,  upon  their  re- 

1688.  lations  with  their  neighbors  of  Canada.,  and,  through 
that  medium,  upon  their  domestic  condition,  it  exercised 
•  a  most  disastrous  influence,  involving  them  in  cruel  and 
barbarizing  wars,  attended  with  immense  individual  suf- 
fering, vast  Expense,  heavy  debts,  and  all  the  impoverish- 
ing and  demoralizing  consequences  of  the  paper  money 
system.  To  understand  the  origin  of  these  wars,  we  must 
cast  a  hasty  glance  at  Europe.  Louis  XIV.,  celebrated 
by  his  subjects  as  "  the  great  monarch,"  and  certainly 
the  most  powerful  and  splendid  sovereign  whom  Europe 
had  yet  seen,  held  at  this  time  a  position  in  European 
politics  similar  to  that  of  Philip  II.  in  the  previous  cen- 
tury. All  his  neighbors,  the  Dutch,  the  Germans,  the 
<  Spaniards,  the  English,  looked  at  him  with  dread  and 
indignation,  as  aiming  at  an  extent  of  dominion  quite 
inconsistent  with  their  safety  and  independence.  From 
a  mixture  of  religious  and  political  motives,  in  which, 
however,  the  political  predominated — for  religion  was 
now  fast  losing  its  political  importance— the  King  of 
1685.  France  had  lately  revoked  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  thus  de- 
priving his  numerous  and  intelligent  Protestant  subjects 
of  that  toleration  and  those  civil  rights  which,  under  that 
famous  .edict,  they  had  f  enjoyed  for  almost  a  century. 
The  cruelties  to  which  these  unhappy  French  Protestants 
were  subjected  to  force  them  to  conform  to  the  Catholic 
faith,  and  their  flight  and  dispersion  throughout  Europe 
and  America,  had  kindled  against  the  King  of  France,  in 
all  Protestant  states,  mingled  feelings  of  detestation  and 
horror ;  adding,  also,  new  gall  to  religious  hatreds,  al- 
ready sufficiently  bitter.  Even  the  Catholic  states 
dreaded  the  ambition  of  Louis.  Spain  feared  for  the 
Netherlands,  then  a  part  of  her  dominions,  upon  which, 

'  •  '  -          '  • 


FIRST  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR. 


H27 


as  well  as  on  Holland,  Louis  had  fixed  a  covetous  eye. 
The  German  princes  were  alarmed  at  a  claim,  set  up  on 
behalf  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  the  brother  of  Louis,  to  1688. 
the  inheritance  of  the  Palatinate,  the  territory  on  the 
Upper  Rhine.  The  persevering  energy  of  the  Prince  of 
Orange,  hereditary  Stadtholder  of  Holland,  had  united  all 
these  powers  in  a  league  to  resist  the  ambitious  inten- 
tions of  Louis  ;  and  when,  by  the  late  revolution  in  En-  - 
gland,  that  prince  ascended  the  British  thrones,  those 
kingdoms  also  became  parties  to  the  war — a  step  to  which 
they  were  disposed,  not  only  by  their  terror  of  Catholicism 
and  their  hereditary  hatred  of  the  French,  but  by  the  el- 
ement also  of  mercantile  jealousy  which  had  prompted  the 
late  wars  with  the  Dutch,  and  which  now  began  to  ex- 
ercise a  very  decided  influence  upon  European  affairs. 
This  war,  already  begun  in  Europe  by  the  ravage  of  the  1689. 
beautiful  banks  of  the  Rhine,  was  destined  to  extend  also 
to  America ;  and  soon  carried  death  and  desolation  into 
the  villages  of  New  York  and  New  England.  'fts/j# 

The  total  population  of  the  English  colonies  at  the 
commencement  of  this  first  intercolonial  war  might  have 
amounted  to  two  hundred  thousand ;  but  half  at  least 
of  it,  south  of  the  Delaware,  and  far  removed  from  the 
scene  of  hostilities,  took  no  part  in  the  struggle  beyond 
voting  some  small  sums  for  the  aid  of  New  York.  Yet 
the  northern  colonies  alone  seemed  quite  an  overmatch 
for  New  France,  and  William  promptly  rejected  that 
offer  of  colonial  neutrality  which  a  conscious  weakness  in 
that  quarter  had  extorted  from  the  French  court.  Nor 
was  this  rejection  by  any  means  disagreeable  to  the  peo- 
ple of  New  England,  who  entered  very  eagerly  into  the 
war,  nourishing  dreams  of  conquest,  destined,  however, 
to  repeated  and  disastrous  disappointments. 

The  French,  weak  as  they  were,  entertained  also  sim- 


" 


128.  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

(" 
ilar  schemes.     It  was  part  of  their  £lan  to  secure  the 


____  western  fur  trade,  and  an  uninterrupted  passage  through 
699.  Lake  Erie  to  the  Mississippi,  by  'effectually  •  subduing 
those  inveterate  enemies  the  Iroquois.  They  intended, 
also,  to  drive  the  English  from  Hudson'^  Bay,  of  which 
the  possession  had  for  some  time  been  disputed  between 
the  French  fur  traders  and  the  English  Hudson  Bay 
Company,  chartered  twenty  years  before  by  Charles  II., 
the  only  one  of  the  old  Anglo-American  companies  which 
still  remains  in  existence.  The  French  also  hoped,  by 
occupying  Newfoundland,  to  cut  off  the  English  from 
that  cod  fishery*,  enjoyed  in  common  by  the  nations  of 
Europe  since  the  discovery  of  America,  and  which  now 
constituted  a  main  source  of  the:  wealth  and  prosperity 
of  New  England,  furnishing,  indeed,  her  chief  exporta- 
ble product. 

Since  the  time  of  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  Newfound- 
land had  continued  to  be  claimed  by  the  English,  but 
the  patents  successively  granted  had  produced  but  small 
results.  The  policy,  indeed,  had  been  adopted  of  dis- 
couraging permanent  settlements,  from  some  fancied  in- 
terference with  the  interest  of  the  fisheries.  The  En- 
glish, however,  had  posts  at  St.  John's,  and  elsewhere  on 
the  eastern  shore.  Plaoentia  Bay,  en  the  southern  coast. 
was  occupied  by  .the  French. 

So  soon  as  the  declaration  of  waj  between  France  and 
England  became  known  in  America,  ,the  Bajron  Cast-in 
easily  excited  the  Eastern  Indians  to  renew  their  depre- 
dations. In  these  hostilities  the  tribes  of  New  Hamp- 
shire were  induced  also  to  join.  Those  tribes  had  nei- 
ther forgotten  nor  forgiven  the  treachery  of  Waldron, 
at  the  conclusion  of  Philip's  war  thirteen  years  before. 
Two  Indian  women,  apparently  friendly,  sought  and  'ob- 
tained a  night's  lodging  at  Waldron's  garrison  or  forti- 


FIRST  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.    '  ^£9 

fied  house  at  Dover.     They  rose  at  midnight,  opened  the  CHAPTER 
doors,  and  admitted  a  party  lying  in  wait  for  the -pur- _____ 
pose.      Waldron,  an  old  man  of  eighty,  after  a  stout  re-  1689. 
sistance,  was  made  prisoner.     Placed  by  his  captors  in  June  19 
an  elbow-chair  at  the  head  of  a  table  in  the  hall,  he  was 
taunted  with  the  exclamation,  "  Judge  Indians  now !" 
after  which  he  was  put  to  death  with  tortures.     Twenty 
others  were  killed.    Twenty-nine  were  carried  off  as  pris- 
oners.    The  village  was  burned.     The  fort  at  Pemaquid, 
the  extreme  eastern  frontier,  was  soon  after  attacked  by    Aug. 
a  party  of  Penobscots,  resident  in  the  neighborhood,  in- 
stigated by  the  Jesuit  Thury,  who  lived  among  them  as 
a  missionary.      The  garrison,  obliged  to  surrender,  was 
dismissed  by  the  Indians,  but  the  fort,  which  Andros  had 
built,  was  destroyed.     An  attack  upon  Casco  was  re- 
pulsed by  Church,  the  famous  partisan  of  Philip's  war,     Sept. 
sent  from  Massachusetts  with  two  hundred  and  fifty  men. 
But  all  the  settlements  further  east  were  ravaged  and 
broken  up.     In  hopes  to  engage  the  formidable  Mohawks 
as  auxiliaries  against  these  eastern  tribes,  commissioners 
from  Boston  proceeded  to  Albany,  then  held  by  the  mem- 
bers of  the  New  York  council  opposed  to  Leisler.      In 
a  conference  had  there  with  some  chiefs  of  the  Five 
Nations,  they  expressed  their  determination  to  continue 
the  war  against  Canada,  but  they  could  not  be  pr^yail- 
ed  upon  to .  lift  the  hatchet  against  their  Indian  brethreff 
of  the  East, 

Reduced  to  extreme  distress  by  the.  late  successful 
inroads  of  the  Iroquois,   Canada  had  just  received  re- 
lief by  the  arrival  from  France  of  Count  Frontenac,  re-  Oct.  15- 
commissioned  as  governor,  and  bringing  with  him  such     . 
of  the  Indian  prisoners  sent  to  France  as  had  survived 
the  galleys,  troops,  supplies,  and  a  scheme  for  the  con- 
quest and  occupation  of  New  York.     As  a  part  of  this 
II.— I 


1.3-0  HISTORY    OF -THE    UNI.TEIx  STATES. 

CHAPTER  scheme,  the  .Chevalier  de  la  Coffiniere,  Who  bad  accom- 
__1^  panied  Frontenac  to  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  pro- 

1689.  eeeded  ttf  cruise  off  the  coast  of  New  England,  making 
many  prizes,  and  designing  to  attack  New  York  by  sea, 
while  Frontenac  assailed  it  on  the  land  side.     Frontenac, 
though  sixty-eight  years  of  age,  had  all  the   buoyancy 
arid  vigor  of  youth.      He  was  a  man  of  great  energy 
and  determination,  and  his  former  administration  of  the 
colony  made  him  aware  pf  the  measures  which  the  ex- 
igency demanded.       The  Iroquois  had  already  retired 
from  Montreal,  and  preparations  were  immediately  made 
for  relieving 'Fort  Frontenac.      These  preparations,  how- 
ever, were  too  late,  for  the  garrison  had  already,  set  fire 
to  the  fort,  and  retired  down  the  river.     Means  were 
still  found,  however,  to  keep  up  the  communication  with 
Mackinaw.      Not  able  to  prosecute  his  scheme  of  con- 
quest, Frontenac  presently  detached  three  war  parties,  to 
visit  on  the  English  frontier  those  same  miseries  which 
Canada  had  so>  recently  experienced  at  the  hands  of  the 
Five  Nations. 

In  the  course  of  the  last  twenty  years,  a  number  of 
converted  Mohawks,  induced  to  retire  from  among  their 
heathen  brethren,  had  established  themselves  at  the  rap- 
ids of  St.  Louis,  in  a  village  known  also  as  Cagna- 
waga,  on  the  south  bank  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  nearly 
opposite  Montreal.  It  was  chiefly  these  converted  Mo- 
hawks, well  acquainted  with  the  settlements  about  Al- 
bany, who  composed,  with  a  number  of  Frenchmen,  the 
first  of  Frontenac's  war  parties,  amounting  in  the  whole 
to  a  hundred  and  ten  persons.  Guided  by  the  water 

1690.  courses,  whose   frozen  surface   furnished  them  a  path. 
Jan-     they  traversed  a  wooded  wilderness  covered  with  deep 

snows.      Pressing  stealthily  forward  in  a  single  file,  the 
foremost  wore  snow-shoes,  and  so  beat  a  track  for  the 


FIRST  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  j  3  } 

rest.  At  night  the  snow  was  thrown  up  toward  the  CHAPTJJR 
side  whence  the  wind  came,  and  in  the  hollow  thus  \- 
scpoped  out  the  party  slept  on  branches  of  pine,  round  1690. 
a  fire  in  the  midst.  A  little  parched  corn  served  them 
for  provisions,  eked  out  by  such  game  as  they  killed. 
After  a  twenty-two  days'  march,  latent  x>n  their  bloody 
purpose,  they  approached  Schenectady,  the  object  of  their 
toil.  This  was  a  Dutch  village  on  the  Mohawk,  then 
the  outpost  of  the  settlements  about  Albany.  The  clus- 
ter of  some  forty  houses  was  protected  by  a  palisade,  but 
the  gates  were  open  and  unguarded,  and  at  midnight 
the  inhabitants  slept  profoundly.  The  assailants  entered  Feb.  8. 
in  silence,  divided  themselves  into  several  parties,  and, 
giving  the  signal  by  the  terrible  war-whoop,  commenced 
the  attack.  Shrieks  of  women  and  children  answered. 
Doors  were  broken  open ;  houses  set  on  fire ;  blood  flowed'. 
Sixty  were  slain  on  the  spot;  twenty-seven  were  taken 
prisoners ;  the  rest  fled,  half  naked,  along  the  road  to 
Albany  through  a  driving  snow-storm,  a  deep  snow,  and 
cold  so  bitter  that  many  lost  their  limbs  by  frost.  The- 
assailants  set  off  for  Canada  with  their  prisoners  and 
their  plunder,  and  effected  their  escape,  though  not  with- 
out serious  loss  inflicted  by  some  Mohawk  warriors,  who  , 
hastened  to  pursue  them.  The  terror  inspired  by  this 
attack  was  so  great  that,  for  the  sake  of  aid  and  sup- 
port, the  malcontents  who  held  Albany  submitted  to  the 
hated  Leisler.  But  nothing  could  prevail  on  that  rash 
and  passionate  chief  to  use  his  authority  with  moderation. 
He  confiscated  the  property  of  his  principal  opponents. 
Bayard  and  Nichols  were  held  in  confinement ;  and  for 
the  arrest  of  Livingston,  warrants  were  sent  to  Boston 
and  Hartford,  whither  he  had  fled  for  safety. 

Frontenac's  second  war  party,  composed  of  only  fifty- 
two  persons,  departing  from  Three  Rivers,  a  village  half 


132  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  way  from  Montreal  to  Quebec,  ascended  the  St.  Francis, 

,          entered  the  valley  of  the  Upper  Connecticut,  and  thence 

1690.  made  their  way  across  the  mountains  and  forests  of  New 

Hampshire.     Presently  they  descended  on  Salmon  Falls, 

a  -frontier  village  on  th#  chief  branch  of  the  Piscataqua. 

March  27.  They  attacked  it  by  surprise,  killed  most  of  the  male  in- 
habitants, plundered  and  burned  the  houses,  and  carried 
off  fifty-four  prisoners,  chiefly  women  and  children,  whom 
they  drove  before  them,  laden  with  the  spoils.  While 
thus  returning  they  fell  in  with  the  third  war  party 
frqm  Quebec,  and,  joining  forces,  proceeded  to  attack 
Casco.  A  part  of  the  garrison  was  lured  into  an  am- 
buscade and  destroyed.  The  rest,  seeing  their  palisades 
May.  about  to.  be  set  on  fire,  surrendered  on  terms  as  prisoners 
of  war. 

Such  wag  the  new  and  frightful  sort  of  warfare  to 
which  the  English  colonists  were  exposed.  The  savage 
ferocity  of  the  Indians,  guided  by  the  sagacity  and  civ- 
ilized skill  and  enterprise  of  French  officers,  became  ten 
times  more  terrible.  The  influence  which  the  French 
missionaries  had  acquired  by  persevering  self-sacrifice 
and  the  highest  efforts  of  Christian  devotedness  was  now 
availed  of,  as  too  often  happens,  by  mere  worldly  policy. 
to  stimulate  their  converts  to  hostile  inroads  and  mid- 
night murders.  Religious  zeal  sharpened  the  edge  of 
savage  hate.  The  English  were  held  up  to  the  Indians 
not  merely  as  enemies,  but  as  heretics,  upon  whom  it  was 
a  Christian  duty  to  make  war.  If  the  chaplet  of  vic- 
tory were  missed,  at  least  the  crown  of  martyrdom  was 
'  sure. 

These  cruel  Indian  inroads  seemed  to  the  sufferers 
abundant  confirmation  of  the  tales  of  the  Huguenots 
scattered,  through  the  colonies  as  to  the  bloody  and  im- 
placable spirit  of  the  Catholic  faith.  These  religious 


FIRST-INTERCOLONIAL  WAR. 

refugees  were  so  numerous  in  Boston  and  New  York  as  CHAPTER 

.  v        xx 
to  have  in  each  of  those  towns  a  church  of  their  own.      '•'  ' 

Hatred  of  popery  received  a  new  impetus.  It  is  hardly  1690. 
to  be  wondered  at  that  the  few  Catholics  of  Maryland, 
though  their  fathers  had  been  the  founders  of  that  colo- 
ny, were  disfranchised,  and  subjected  to  all  the  disabili- 
ties by  which,  in  Britain  and  Ireland,  the  suppression  of 
Catholicism  was  vainly  attempted.  Probably  also  to  this 
period  we  may  refer  the  act  of  Rhode  Island,  of  unknown 
date,  which  excluded  Catholics  from  becoming  freemen 
of  that  colony. 

But  cruelties  were  not  confined  to  one  side.  The  in- 
roads of  the  Mohawks  into  Canada,  always  encouraged 
and  supported  by  the  authorities  of  New  York, 'were, 
even  sometimes  directed  by  leaders  from  Albany.  The 
French  settlements  along  the  coast  of  Acadie,  long  since 
objects  of  jealousy  to  New  England,  soon  experienced  all 
the  miseries  of  partisan  warfare. 

Engrossed  by  the  war  in  Ireland,  where  the  partisans 
of  James  II.  were  still  powerful,  William  III.  left  the 
colonies  to  take  care  of  themselves.  Massachusetts,  as 
usual,  assumed  the  leadership.  Shortly  after  the  attacks 
on  Schenectady  and  Salmon  Falls,  the  provisional  gov- 
ernment of  that  province  addressed  a  circular  letter  to 
all  the  colonies  as  far  south  as  Maryland,  inviting  therri 
to  send  commissioners  to  New  York,  to  agree  upon  some 
concerted  plan  of  operations.  In  accordance  with  this 
invitation,  delegates  from  Massachusetts,  Connecticut, 
and  New  York  met  at  the  time  and  place  proposed,  May. 
where  a  counter  scheme  of  conquest  was  formed.  While 
a  fleet  and  army  sailed  from  Boston  to  attack  Quebec, 
nine  hundred  men  were  to  be  raised  in  Connecticut  and 
New  York,  to  march  by  land  against  Montreal. 

Besides  this  joint  undertaking,  Massachusetts  already 


1.34  HISTORY'  OF   THE   -UNJTED    STATES. 

had  on  foot  an  enterprise  of  her,  pwn.  .  A  fleet  of  eight 


'      or  nine  small  vessels,  with  seven  or  eight  hundred  men  on 


1690.  board,  sailed  against  Acadie,  under  the  command  of  Sir 
'William  Phipps.  Phipps  was  a  native  of  Pemaquid, 
one  of  twenty-six  children  by  the  same  mother.  First 
a  shepherd,  then  a  ship-carpenter,  then  a  sailor,  and 
finally  a  ship-master,  successful  enterprise  in  fishing  up 
bullion  from  an  old  Spanish  wreck  on  the  coast  of  St. 
Domingo,  in  which  business  some  English  noblemen  had 
been  his  partners,  had  obtained  for  him  the  honor  of 
knighthood  from  the  hand  of  James  II.,  and  a  handsome 
fortune,  with  which  he  had  recently  returned  to  estab- 
lish himself  at  Boston.  Phipps's  fleet  passed  Casco  just 
after  its  surrender,  too  late  to  render  any  assistance. 
An  easy  conquest  was  made  of  Port  Royal,  and  plunder 
enough  was  obtained,  by  the  ravage  of  the  neighboring 
settlements,  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  expedition,  though 
not  without  complaints,  on  the  part  of  the  French,  that 
the  articles  of  surrender  were  grossly  violated.  Phipps 
departed  in  a  few  days  to  attack  the  other  French  posts 
in  Acadie.  He  was  hardly  gone  when  the  unfortunate 
June.  Port  Royal  was  visited  and  a  second  time  plundered  by 
two  English  privateers  from  the  West  Indies. 

The  success  of  this  enterprise  encouraged  the  prose- 
cution of  the  expedition  against  Canada.  Fitz-John 
,  Winthrop,  son  of  the  late  governor  of  Connecticut,  and 
,  himself  presently  to  fill  that  office,  was  appointed  to  com- 
mand i^he  troops  destined  against  Montreal  ;  while  Mil- 
bourne,  Leisler's  son-in-law,  undertook,  as  commissary, 
to  provide  and  forward  subsistence  for  the  march.  Fron- 
tenac  had  in  vain  attempted  to  negotiate  a  peace  with  the 
Iroquois.  A  party  of  Mohawks,  the  van  of  the  attack, 
led  by  Schuyler,  pushed  forward  toward  the  St.  Law- 
rence. At  the  first  alarm,  Frontenac  roused  the  courage 


FIRST  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  135 

of  his  Indian  allies  by  joining  them  in  the  war  song  ahd  CHAPTER 
the  war  dance.      He  was  able  to  muster  twelve  hund-          '• 
red  men  for  the  defense  of  Montreal.      Schuyler  and  the  1690. 
Iroquois  were  repulsed.      The  rest  of  the  colonial  forces     Aug. 
scarcely  advanced  beyond  Lake  George,  where  they  were 
stopped  short  by  ttie  small-pox  and  deficiency  of  provis-/ 
ions.      The  expedition  ended  in  mutual  recriminations, 
which  did  but  express  and  confirm  the  hereditary  an-  >. 
tipathy  of  Connecticut  and  New  York.     Leisler  was  so 
enraged  at  the- retreat  of  the  troops  that  he  even-  arrested 
Winthrop  at  Albany. 

Phipps  meanwhile  sailed  from  Boston  with  thirty-two 
vessels  and  two  thousand  men,  most  of  them  pressed  into 
the  service.  Three  ships  from  New  York,  fitted  out  by 
Leisler,  joined  also  in  this  enterprise.  For  want  of  pilots, 
Phipps  was  nine  weeks  in  findirig  his  way  up  the  St. 
Lawrence,  of  which  no  charts  as  yet  existed.  An  Indian 
runner  from  Piscataqua,  in  a  rapid  journey  of  fourteen 
days,  had  carried  to  Quebec  the  first  intimation  of  this 
new  danger.  Already  assured  of  the  safety  of  Montreal, 
and  informed  by  repeated  messages  that'  the  English 
were  now  at  Tadousac  and  now  at  Isle  Aux  Coudres, 
Frontenac  hastened  back  to  Quebec.  He  arrived  three 
days  before  Phipps,  who  found  himself  disappointed  of 
that  surprise  which  had  been  his  main  reliance.'  The 
fortifications  were  strong,  the  garrison  was  considerable, 
Frontenac  was  there,  and  winter  was  approaching.  A 
party  landed  from  the  ships,  and  some  skirmishing  en- 
sued ;  but  the  English  soon  embarked  again,  leaving 
five  six -pounders  behind  them,  and  the  whole  enterprise 
was  speedily  abandoned.  Louis  XIV.  commemorated 
this  repulse  by  a  medal,  with  the  legend  "  Francia  in 
•  novo  orbe  victrix" — "  France  victorious  in  the  New 
World."  i  ^ 


136  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER       The  fleet  suffered  cm  the  homeward  voyage  by  storms, 

.-.      and  the  men  by  sickness  ;  the  expected  plunder  was  not 

169Q.  obtained,*  the  treasury  had  been  emptied  in  fitting  out 

the  expedition ;  and  when  the  troops  landed  at  Boston, 

disgusted  with  failure,  and  out  of  temper  with  hardships, 

Dec.  there  was  no  money  to  pay  them.  They  even  threaten- 
ed a  military  riot.  The  Greneral  Court,  in  this  emer- 
gency, resolved  upon  an  issue  of  bills  of  credit,  or  treas- 
ury notes,  the  first  paper  money  ever  seen  in  the  English 
colonies.  A  similar  expedient,  in  the  issue  of  "  card 
money,"  redeemable  in  bills  on  France,  had  been  adopt- 
ed in  Canada  five  years  before ;  but  this  fact  was  prob- 
ably unknown  in  Massachusetts.  The  Massachusetts 
notes,  ranging  from  five  shillings  to  five  pounds,  were  re- 
ceivable in  payment  of  taxes,  and  redeemable  out  of  any 
money  in  the  treasury.  Notwithstanding  the  patriotic 
example  of  Phipps,,who  freely  exchanged  coin  for  notes, 
it  was  no  easy  matter  to  get  this  first  government  paper 
into  circulation.  The  total  amount  of  the  issue  was 
presently  fixed  at  £40,000,  $133,333  ;  but,  long  before 
that  limit  was  reached,  the  bills  sunk  to  a  discount  of  one 
-1691.  half.  To  raise  their  credit,  the  General  Court  presently 

May-  made  them  a  legal  tender  in  all  payments,  while  at  the 
treasury  they  were  receivable  at  an  advance  of  five  per 
cent. 

While  Phipps  was  employed  against  Quebec,  Colonel 
Church  led  an  expedition  against  the  Eastern  Indians. 
He  proceeded  up  the  Androscoggin  to  the  Indian  settle- 
ment at  the  great  falls,  now  Lewiston,  where  he  destroy- 
ed a  great  quantity  of  corn,  and,  "for  example,"  put  a 
number  of  his.  prisoners  to  death,  not  sparing  even  women 
and  'children. 

Undeterred  by  such  cruelties,  which  they  knew  too  well 
how  to  retaliate,  the  Eastern  tribes  kept  up  a  frontier 


FIRST  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  ^37 

warfare,  which  occasioned  much  individual  suffering,  per-  CHAPTEK 
petual  anxiety,  and  a  heavy  expense.      The  settlements  __IrL_ 
in  their  neighborhood  received  a  very  serious  check.     The  1691. 
towns  of  Maine,  attacked  one  after  another,  all  suffered, 
and  many  were  abandoned.      The  Indians  would  lie  in 
ambush  for  days  waiting  a  favorable  opportunity.     They 
were  seldom  seen  till  they  struck.      The  plowman  was    , 
shot  in  the  furrow ;  it  was  necessary  to  go  armed  to 
gather  the  crop.     Every  house  became  a  garrison,  lia- 
ble at  any  moment  to  attack.      The  women,  in  order  to 
aid  in  the  defense,  were  taught  not  only  to  load,  but 
to  fire. 

Sometimes,  in  a  fit  of  fury  or  revenge,  the  Indians 
killed  all  who  fell  into  their  hands.  But  their  object  in 
general  was  to  make  prisoners,  especially  of  the  women 
and  children,  for  whom  a  market  was  found  in  Canada, 
where  they  were  purchased  as  servants — a  constant  stim- 
ulus to  new  enterprises  on  the  part  of  the  Indians.  These 
unhappy  captives,  in  their  long  and  dreary  travels  through 
the  woods,  frequently  in  mid-winter,  the  women  often 
with  infants  in  their  arms,  suffered  sometimes  from  the 
cruel  insolence  of  their  captors,  and  always  from  terror, 
hunger,  and  fatigue.  Arrived  in  Canada,  they  often  ex- 
perienced at  the  hands  of  their  French  purchasers  an  un- 
expected kindness,  prompted  frequently,  .  no  doubt,  by 
pure  humanity,  but  sometimes,  also,  by  zeal  for  their 
conversion  to  the  Catholic  faith,  in  which  case  it  became 
a  new  source  of  suffering.  Many  of  the  returned  cap- 
tives related,  among  the  sorest  of  their  trials,  temptations 
to  change  their  religion.  To  these  temptations  some 
yielded.  Of  the  captive  children  who  remained  long 
among  the  Indians,  many  became  so  habituated  to  that 
wild  method  of  life  as  to  be  unwilling,  when  ransomed, 
to  return  to  their  parents. 


138  HISTORY    OF 'THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER       As  if  this  terrible  Indian  war  were  not  scourge  enough, 
New  York  and  Massachusetts,  both  at  the  same  time, 

1689.  were  the  scenes  each  of  its  own  domestic  tragedy.     Leav- 
ing Leisler's  letter  unanswered,  William  III.  had  appoint- 
ed .as  governor  of  New  York  Colonel  Henry  Sloughter. 

1690.  He  also -had  directed  the  raising  of  an  independent  com- 
pany of  Tegular  soldiers  toward  the  .defense  of  that  prov- 
ince.    But  a  French  fleet  swept  the  Channel,  and  Slough- 
ter's  departure  was  for  some  time  delayed.      Leisler,  in 
fact,  received  no  notice  of  his  appointment  till  Captain  In- 

1691.  golsby.  arrived  with  the  independent  .company.    Sloughter 
Jan.  30.  jjg-^  saiie(j  at  the  same  time,  but  in  another  vessel,  which 

had  parted  company  in  a  storm.  Supported , by  all  the  op- 
ponents of  Leisler,  Ingolsby  claimed  the  temporary  admin- 
'  istratipn  and  possession  of  the  fort,  on  the  ground  that  he 
held  the  king's  commission.  But,  as  he-  could  show  no 
authority  from  Sloughter,  Leisler  declined  to  give  it  up. 
He  issued,  however,  a  proclamation  recognizing  Slough - 
ter's  appointment,  and  directing  that  Ingolsby's  soldiers 
should  be  quartered  in  the  city.  Six  weeks  elapsed  be- 
fore Sloughter  arrived,  during  which  Leisler  was  block- 
aded in  the  fort,  and  some  lives  were  lost.  Sloughter 
at  length  appeared ;  and  because  the  fort  was  not  yield- 
March  19. 'ed  up  at  the  first  summons,  made  through  Ingolsby,  and 
without  any  presentation  of  Sloughter's  commission,  or 
proof,  in  fa<rt,  of  his  actual  arrival,  the  new  governor 
caused  Leisler  and  his  council  to  be  arrested  for  high  trea- 
son. While  they  became  prisoners,  Bayard  and  Nichpls, 
delivered-  from  the  imprisonment  in  which  Leisler  had 
kept  them,  were  sworn  members  of  Sloughter's  council. 
Leisler's  enemies  were  burning  for  revenge  ;  and  a  special 
court  of  eight  members  was  presently  organized  for  the 
trial  of  the  prisoners.  .  Leisler  and  Milbourne  denied  the 
jurisdiction  of  this  court,  and  refused  to  plead.  They  were 


LEISTER'S  EXECUTION.  ^.3  9 


found  guilty,  nevertheless,  and  sentenced  to  death.     Dud-  CHAPTER 
ley  had  been  consoled  for  his  late  imprisonment  in  Mas-  „ 
sachusetts  by  the  chief  justiceship  of  New  York  and  a  1691. 
seat  in  the  council.      What  part  he  took  in  -this1  affair 
does  not  precisely  appear,  though  his  connection  with  it 
was  afterward  made  a  serious  charge  against  him  by  his 
enemies.      Sloughter  hesitated  to  order  the   execution, 
preferring  to  await  the  decision  of  the  king.      But  party 
hatred  was  not  thus  to  be  balked. 

A  new  Assembly  had  met  meanwhile,  composed  of 
Leisler's  bitter  enemies.  The  House  refused  to  recom- 
mend a  temporary  reprieye;  the  council  urged  instant 
execution  as  essential  to  the  peace  and  safety  of  the  prov^ 
ince.  At  a  dinner  party  given  for  that  very  purpose, 
Sloughter  was  inveigled,  heated  with  wine,  into  signing 
the  fatal  warrant ;  and  while  the  revel  was  protracted 
into  morning,  the  two  prisoners,  suddenly  separated  from 
their  weeping  wives  and  children,  were  hastily  led  to  May.lG. 
execution.  It  was  feared  lest,  when  Sloughter  became 
sober,  he  might  recall  the  warrant.  The  gallows  stood 
without  the  city  wall,  at  the  lower  angle  of  what  is  now 
the  Park.  The  town's  people  flocked  together  to  witness 
this  sad  end  of  their  leader.  In  spite  of  a  cold,  drizzling 
rain,  there  came  also  some  of  the  counselors,  among^  the 
rest  Livingston,  eager  to  feast  their  eyes  on  the  death 
of  their  victims.  More  moved  at  his  son-in-law's  fate 
than  his  own,  Leisler  admitted  that  he  might  have  fallen 
into  errors  "  through  ignorance  and  jealous  fears,  through 
rashness  and  passion,  through  misinformation  .and  mis- 
construction," but  he  died  protesting  his  loyalty  and  good 
intentions.  "Robert  Livingston,"  said  the  indignant 
Milbourne  from  the  scaffold,  "  for  this  I  will  implead 
thee  at  the  bar  of  God !"  Iri  spite  of  the  rain,  which 
poured  in  torrents,  the  people  rushed  forward  to  obtain 


140  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

1 

CHAPTER  some  last  rnemento  of  their  leaders,  pieces  of  their  clothes, 
or  locks  of  their"  hair. 


161)1.  This  judicial  murder,  if  it  gratified  one  faction,  did 
but  exasperate  the  other.  The  feud  between  tjie  en- 
emies and  the  friends  of  Ijeisler  became  deeply  inter- 
Woven  -with  the  politics  of  New  York,  forming  for  hear 
a  quarter  of  a  century  the  basis  of  a  party  division  of 
the  fiercest  and  bitterest  sort.  An  appeal  to  the  king, 
which  the  prisoners  had  taken,  was  prosecuted  by  Leis- 
ler's  son.  The  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council,  to  whom 
the  matter  was  referred,  reported  that  the  forms  of  law 
had  been  observed  on  the  trial ;  but  they  recommended 
'  the  restitution  of  the  estates  of  the  culprits,  which,  by 
A  the  English  law  of  treason,  stood  forfeit  to  the  king. 
Some  years  after,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  the  attain- 
der was  reversed  by  act  of  Parliament. 

The  administration  of  Sloughter,  thus  tragically  be- 
gun, marks  the  final  abandonment  in  New  York  of  the 
ancient  Dutch  usages,  and  the  complete  introduction  of 
English  law.  The  acts  of  the  Assembly  which  solicited 
the  execution  of  Leisler  stand  first  in  the  regular  series 
of  New  York  statutes,  the  basis  of  the  existing  code  of 
that  state.  By  one  of  those  acts  all  previous  laws  were 
repealed.  The  province  was  re-divided  into  ten  coun- 
ties— -New  York,  Westchester,  Ulster,  Albany,  Dutch- 
ess,  Orange,  Richmond,  King's,  Queen's,  and  Suffolk. 
There  were,  indeed,  two  others,  Duke's  and  Cornwall ; 
but  those,  under  the  new  charter  of  Massachusetts,jwere 
transferred  to  that  province.  The  judicial  authority, 
having  passed  from  the  old  Court  of  Assize,  was  hencefor- 
ward vested  in  a  Supreme  Court  of  five  judges.  The  king 
placed  his  veto  on  another  statute,  declaring  the  right  of 
the  inhabitants  to  participate,  through  an  Assembly,  in 
the  enactment  Of  all  laws,  and  claiming  all  the  privileges 


NEW   CHARTER  OF  MASSACHUSETTS.  141 

of  the  English  Bill  of  Rights ;  but;  in  practice,  an  Assem-  CHAPTER 
bly  became  henceforth  an  essential  part  of  the  political  ______ 

system  of  New  York.     Yet,  by  voting  a  revenue  for  a  1691. 
term  of  years,  and  allowing  payments  from  the  treasury  ' 
only  on  the  governor's  warrant,  that  officer  was  rendered, 
to  a  certain  extent,  independent  of  the  Assembly,  and 
was  thus  enabled  to  exercise  a  powerful  influence  on  the 
politics  of  the  province. 

In  the  mean  while  the  war  against  Canada  languished. 
Schuyler  from  Albany,  with  a  party  of  Mohawks,  made 
a  foray  upon  Sorel,  but  was  obliged  to  effect  a  speedy     Aug. 
retreat.     Massachusetts,  quite  exhausted  by  her  military 
exertions  the  year  before,  was  not  able  to  undertake  any 
new  enterprises.     Villebon,  arriving  from  France  with    Nov. 
an  armed  ship,  retook  Port  Royal,  and  presently  estab- 
lished himself  at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  John's,  where  he 
carried  on  a  brisk  trade  with  the  Eastern  Indians,  and   , 
kept  them  well  supplied  with   arms  and  ammunition. 
The  eastern  frontier  of  New  England  continued  to  suffer. 
York,  surprised  by  a  French  and  Indian  party  from  Cari-  1692. 
ada,  lost  seventy-five  of  the  inhabitants  in  killed,  and  as  Jan<  23< 
many  more  taken  prisoners.     Wells  was  attacked  soon 
after ;   but  the  people  made  a  stout  resistance,  and  re- 
pulsed the  assailants. 

Sir  William  Phipps,  who  had  gone  to  England  to  so- 
licit an  expedition  against  Quebec,  presently  returned 
with  the  new  charter  of  Massachusetts  and  the  king's 
commission  as  governor. 

This  new  charter  gave  a  greatly  increased  extent  to 
the  province.  The  people  of  Plymouth  had  sent  an 
agent  to  England  to  solicit  a  separate  patent.  Not  a 
little  to  their  mortification,  they  now  found  themselves 
included  under  the  charter  of  Massachusetts,  along  with. 
Maine  and  Sagadahoc,  aridv  indeed,  on  the  strength  of 


142  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  Phipps's  transient  conquest,  the  whole  region  on   both 
.    V    aides  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  from  the  Penobscot  to  the  Gulf 
1692.  of  St.  Lawrence. 

.  the  New 'Hampshire  towns  had  desired  to  be  also  in- 
cluded, but  were  prevented  by  Allen,  a  London  mer- 
ohafrt,  who  had  bought  up  Mason's  claim  to  the  soil,  and 
who  now  obtained  for  himself  a  commission  as  governor 
of  New  Hampshire,  with  another  as  lieutenant  governor 
for  Usher  j  his  son-in-law.  This  Usher  was  the  same 
Boston  bookseller  /and  merchant  whose  agency  had  for- 
merly been  employed  by  Massachusetts  in  the  purchase 
of  Maine.  Under  his  administration  New  Hampshire 
presently  became  the  scene  of  a  new  series  of  fruitless 
law-suits.  .  But  for  this  claim  of  Allen,  the  whole  of  New 
England,  except  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut,  might 
now  have  formed  a  single  state. 

The  new  charter  of  Massachusetts  reserved  to  the 
crown  the  appointment  of  the  governor,  lieutenant  gov- 
ernor, and  colonial  secretary.  It  conferred  upon  the 
governor  the  right  of  summoning,  adjourning,  and  dis- 
solving the  General  Court,  and  a  negative  upon  all  its 
acts,  which  at  any  time  within  three  years  after  the 
governors  approbation  might  also  be  set  aside  by  the 
royal  veto.  The  General  Court  was  to  consist,  as  be- 
fore>  of  two  boards,  a  council  and  a  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives. The  representatives  were  to  be  annually 
chosen  by  the  people.  The  counselors,  nominated  for 
the,  first  year  by  the  crown,  were  afterward  to  be  annu- 
ally chosen  by  joint  ballot  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives and  the  previous  council ;  but  of  the  twenty-eight 
thus  chosen,  the  governor  might  reject  thirteen*-  The 
advice  and  consent  of  the  council  were  necessary  to  all 
appointments  and  official  acts.  As  had  been  the  case 
-with  the  former  Board  of  Assistants,  the  same  persons 


.  ". 

N:EW  CHARTER   OF  MASSACHUSETTS.  143; 

often  continued  members  of  this  council  for  many  years.  CHAPTER 
The  counselors  were  generally  wealthy  men  "of  moderate  ______ 

politics.      The  governors  rejected  such  warm  opponents  1692. 
of  their  policy  as  were  chosen  in  joint  ballot,  while  the 
House  dropped  such  as  made  themselves,  too  obnoxious  to 
the  popular  interest. 

The  judicial  authority  formerly  exercised' by  the  Board  % 

of  Assistants  and  the  General  Court  was  transferred  by 
the  new  charter  to  a  Superior  Court  of  law,  from  which 
appeals  lay  to  the  king  in  council.  The  particular  or- 
ganization of  this  superior  court,  as  well  as  of  the  in- 
ferior tribunals,  was  left  to  the  colonial  Legislature.  To  , 
the  governor,  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  council, 
was  reserved  the  appointment  of  judges,  of  all  inferior- 
magistrates,  and  of  the  officers  of  the  militia,  of  which, 
by  virtue  of  his  office,  he  was  commander-ih-chief. 

The  theocracy,  which  had  founded,  and  hitherto  had 
ruled  the  colony,  lost,  under  this  new  charter,  a  great 
part  of  its  power.  Toleration  was  expressly  secured  to 
all  religious  sects  except  papists.  The  right  of  suffrage, 
limited  under  the  old  government  to  church  members,  . 
and  a  few  select  persons  admitted  freemen  on  a  minis- 
ter's certificate,  was  now  bestowed  upon  all  inhabitants 
possessing  a  freehold  of  the  annual  value  of  forty  shil- 
lings, $6  66,  or  personal  property  to  the  amount  of  £40, 
$133  33.  Yet  the  old  ecclesiastical  system  still  had  a 
strong  hold  on  the  popular  mind,  and  the  General  Court, 
in  which  the  theocratic  party  maintained  for  many  years 
a  predominating  influence,  promptly  endowed  the  Con- 
gregational churches,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  with  ail 
the  attributes  of  a  legal  establishment. 
\  If  Massachusetts  lost,  under  the  new  charter,  the 
quasi-independence  for  which  her  theocratic  rulers/ had 
so  manfully  contended,  she  gained  a  commencement  of 


,144  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  religious  freedom,  and  the  extension^  to  all  her  inhabit  - 

•         ants  of  political  rights  ; '  and  in  the  school  of  subjection 

1692.  to  the  mother  country,  not  servile,  but  watchful,  and 

jealous  of  every  aggression,  she  prepared  herself  for  a 

future  more  liberal , exercise  of  independent  authority. 

Gooke  and  Oakes,  Mather's  colleagues  in  the  agency, 
when  they  found  that  the  old  charter  would  not  be  re- 
stored, had  doggedly  refused  to  have  any  thing  to  do 
with  a  new  one.  Mather,  though  no  less  a  Stickler 
than  they  for  the  old  constitution,  bent  to  circumstances, 
and,  in  conjunction  with  Ashurst,  had  agreed  to  co-oper- 
ate in  framing  the  new  one — a  compliance  rewarded  by 
leaving  to  him  the  nomination  of  the  officers  to  be  ap- 
pointed by  the  crown.  Thus  complimented,  he  took  care 
to  compose  the  council  of  "  persons  favorable  to  the  in- 
terests of  the  churches."  For  governor  he  named  Sir 
William  Phipps,  an  illiterate  man,  of  violent  temper,  with 
more  of  energy  than  ability,  but  very  docile  to  his  re- 
ligious guides,  and  lately  admitted  a  member  of  Mather's 
.church.  Notwithstanding  Stoughton's  connection  with 
Dudley,  he  had  managed  to ^ retain  Mather's  good  will; 
indeed,  whatever  his  politics  might  be,  his  attachment 
was  firm  to  the  more  zealous  party  in  the  church.  For 
him  the  office  of  lieutenant  governor  was  procured.  Yet 
the  loss  df  the  old  charter  was  very  deeply  regretted,  es- 
pecially by  those  most  disposed  to  abuse  its  powers.  In 
spite  of  his  theocratic  principles,  because  he  had  assented 
to  what  could  not  be  helped,  and  had  endeavored  to  make 
the  best  of  it,  Increase  Mather  was  exposed,  like  so  many 
other  agents,  his  predecessors,  to  imputations,  which  al- 
ways stuck  to  him,  however  undeserved,  of  having  sacri- 
ficed and  betrayed  the  rights  of  his  constituents. 

Phipps,  at  his  arrival,  found  the  colony,  or  at  least  a 
powerful  party  in  it,  much  dissatisfied  at  the  curtail- 


SALEM  WITCHCRAFT. 


145 


ment  of  former  independence,  the  people  groaning  under  CHAPTER 
the  expenses  of  the  war,  alarmed  at  continued  inroads  . 

from  Canada,  and;  in  addition  to  these  substantial  evils,  1692. 
suffering  under  delusions  still  more  terrific. 

The  idea  of  fixed  general  laws  binding  the  '  universe 
is  of  very  modern  origin,  at  least  of  very  modern  curren-  •  / " 
cy.  Special  supernatural  interference  served  for  ages  as 
a  compendious  and  comprehensive  explanation  of  all  rare 
and  unaccountable  events.  The  Protestants,  while  they 
rejected  with  passionate  contempt  the  miracles  and  rel- 
ics of  the  papal  'church,  were  yet  by  no  means  free  from 
superstition.  Eastern  legends,  derived,  it  would  seem, 
to  Europe,  from  the  Paulicians,  and  through  them  from 
the  •  Manicheans,  and  through  them  from  the  Persian 
Magi — legends  which  gave  to  the  devil  a  great  influence 
over  the  events  of  this  world — had  made  a  profound  im- 
pression upon  the  Hussites  and  Lollards,  forerunners  of 
Luther's  Reformation.  For  two  or  three  centuries  pre- 
vious to  Luther,  the  devil  figures  more  and  more  in  the 
popular  mythology  of  Europe,  Luther  himself  encoun- 
tered the  arch  tempter,  but  put  him  to  flight  with  an  ink- 
stand— truly,  in  his  hands,  a  formidable  weapon !  . 

The  Protestants  seem  to  have  indemnified  themselves 
for  rejecting  so  many  popish  fables  by  remodeling  the 
old  Scandinavian,  classical,  Oriental,  and  Middle-Age 
legends  on  the  subject  of  witchcraft  into  a  somewhat 
new  shape,  a  counterpart,  as  it  were,  to  the  Protestant 
theological  system.  A  covenant  was  supposed  between 
the  devil  and  certain  unhappy  persons  called  witches,  a 
sort  of  parody  on  the  covenant  between  God  and  his 
holy  elect.  These  witches,  mostly  ill-tempered  old  wom- 
en, -were  supposed  to  have  bargained  away  their  souls  , 
for  the  privilege  of  vexing  and  tormenting  their  neigh- 
bors. Thus  was  afforded  a  ready  explanation  for  a  thou- 
II— K 


146    '         HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  sand  cross-grained  -domestic   accidents   constantly  hap- 
pening to  the  best  of  men,  of  a  nature  to  be  plausibly 
1692.  ascribed  to  soma  invisible  spirit  of  vexation  and  malice. 
It  was  also  a  part  of  the  supposed  business  of  the  witch- 
es to  induce  new  victims -to  enter  the  compact. 

The  practice  of  magic,  sorcery,  and  spells,  in  the  real- 
ity of  which  all  ignorant  communities  have  believed,  had 
long  been  criminal  offenses  in  England.  A  statute  of 
the  thirty-third  year  of.  Henry  VHI.  made  them  capital 
felonies.  Another  statute  of  the  first  year  of  James  I., 
more  specific  in  its  terms,  subjected  to  the  same  penalty 
all  persons  "  invoking  any  evil  spirit,  or  consulting,  cov- 
enanting with> .  entertaining,  employing,  feeding,  or  re- 
warding'any  evil  spirit,  or  taking  up  dead  bodies  from 
their  graves  to  be  used  in  any  witchcraft,  sorcery,  charm, 
or  enchantment,  or.  killing  or  otherwise  hurting  any  per- 
son by  such  infernal  arts."  That  second  Solomon,  before 
whom  the  illustrious  Bacon  bowed  with  so  much  rever- 
ence, was  himself  a  firm  believer  in  witchcraft.  He 
professed,  indeed,  to  be  an  adept  in  the  art  of  defecting 
witches,  an  art  \vhioh.  became  the  subject  of  several 
learned  treatises,  one  of  them  from  James's  own  royal 
pen/  Duiing  the  Commonwealth  England  had  abound- 
ed^ with'  professional  witch  detectors,  who  traveled  from 
county  to  county,  and  occasioned  the  death  of  many  un- 
fortunate persons.  The  "Fundamentals"  of  Massachu- 
setts contained  a  capital  law  against  witchcraft,  fortified 
by  that  express  declaration  of  Scripture,  "  Thou  shalt 
not  suffer  a  witch  to  live."  We  have  already  had  more 
than  one  occasion  to  notice  that  this  law  had  not  slept  a 
dead  letter, 

,  Yet,  among  other  evidences  of  departure  from  ancient 
landmarks,  and  of  the  propagation  even  to  New  En- 
gland of  a  spirit  of  doubt,  were  growing  suspicions  as  to 


,:.   .-.,      .       .      . 

SALEM  WITCHCRAFT.  147 


the  reality  of  that  every-day  supernaturalism  which  form-  '.CHAPTER 
ed  so  prominent  a  feature  of  the  Puritan  theology.     The          ' 
zeal  of  Increase  Mather  against  this  rising  incredulity 
had  engaged  him,  while  the  old  charter  was  still  in  exist- 
ence, to  publish  a  book  of  "  Remarkable  Providences,"  1684. 
in  which  were  enumerated, -among  other  things,  all  the 
supposed  cases  of  witchcraft  which  had  hitherto  occurred 
in  New  England,  with  arguments  to  prove  their  reality. 
What  at  that  time  had  given  the  matter  additional 
interest  was  the  case  of  a  bewitched  or  haunted  house  at 
Ne\vbury.     An  intelligent  neighbor,  who  had  suggested 
that  a  mischievous  grandson  of  the  occupant  might  peix  • 
haps  be  at  the  bottom  of  the  mystery,  was  himself  accus- 
ed of  witchcraft,  and  narrowly  escaped.      A  witch,,  how- .      , 
ever,  the  credulous  townspeople,  yere  resolved  to  find, 
and  they  presently  fixed  upon  the  wife  of  the  occupant 
as  the  culprit.      Seventeen  persons  testified  to  mishaps, 
experienced  in  the  course  of  their  lives,  which  they  char- 
itably chose  to  ascribe  to  the  ill  will  and  diabolical  prac- 
tices of  this  unfortunate  old  woman.      On  this  evidence 
she  was  found  guilty  by  the  jury  ;   but  the  magistrates, 
more  enlightened,  declined  to  order  her  execution.      The 
deputies  thereupon  raised  a  loud  complaint  at  this  delay 
,of  justice.      But  the  firmness  of  Bradstreet,  supported  as 
he  was  by  the  moderate  party,  and  the  abrogation  of  the 
charter  which  speedily  followed,  saved  _the  woman's  lifei 
This   same   struggle   of  opinion  existed  also   in  the 
mother  country,  where  the  rising  sect  of  Free  Thinkers 
began  to  deny  and  deride  all  diabolical  agencies.      Nor' 
was  this  view  confined  to  professed  Free  Thinkers.      The 
latitudinarian  party  in  the  Church,  a  rapidly-growing 
body,  leaned  perceptibly  the  same, way.      The  "serious 
ministers,"  on  the  other  hand,  led  by  Richard  Baxter, 
their  acknowledged  head,  defended  with  zeal  the  reality 


HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

/CHAPTER  of  witchcraft  and  the  personality  and  agency  of  the  devil, 
to'- deny  which  they  denounced  as  little  short  of  atheism. 
They  supported  their  opinions  by  the  authority  of  Sir 
Matthew  Hale,  lord  chief  justice  of  England,  as  distin- 
guished for 'piety :  as  for  knowledge  of  the  law,  under 
whose  instructions  two  alleged  witches,  at  whose  trials 
he  had  presided  shortly  after  the  Restoration,  had  been 
found  guilty  and  executed.  The  accounts  of  those  tri- 
als, published  in  England  on  occasion  of  this  controversy, 
and  republished  at  Boston,  had  tended  to  confirm  the 
popular  belief.  The  doubts  by  which  Mather  had  been 
$  * '  alarmed  were  yet  confined  to  a  few  thinking  men.  Read 

with  a  forward  and  zealous  faith',  these  stories  did  not  fail 
to  make  a  deep  impression  on  the  popular  imagination. 
While  Andros  was  still  governor,   shortly  after  In- 
1688.  crease  Mather's  departure  for  England,  four  young  chil- 
,  dren,  members  of  a  pious  family  in  Boston,  the  eldest  a 

girl  of  thirteen,  the  youngest  a  boy  riot  five,  had  begun 
to  behave  in  a  singular  manner,  barking  like  dogs,  pur- 
ring like  cats,  seeming  to  become  deaf,  blind,  or  dumb, 
haying  their  limbs  strangely  distorted,  complaining  that 
they  were  pinched,  pricked,  pulled,  or  cut ;  acting  out, 
in  fact,  the  effects  of  witchcraft,  according  to  the  cur- 
rent  notions  of  it  and  the  descriptions  in  the  books  above 
referred  to.  The  terrified  father  called  in  Dr.  Oakes,  a 
zealous  leader  of  the  ultra-theocratic  party — presently 
sent  to  England  as  joint  agent  with  Mather — who  gave 
his  opinion  that  the  children  were  bewitched.  The  old- 
est girl  had  lately  received  a  bitter  scolding  from  an  old 
Irish  indented  servant,  ^whose  daughter  she  had  accused 
of  theft.  This  same  old  woman,  from  indications  no 
doubt  given  by  the  children,  was  soon  fixed  upon  as  be- 
ing the  witch..  The  four  ministers  of  Boston  and  another 
from  Charlestown  having  kept  a  day  of  fasting  and  pray- 


SALEM  WITC'HCRAFT.  .  j^9 

er  at  the  troubled  house,  the  youngest  child  was  reliev-  CHAPTER 
ed.  But  the  others,  more  persevering  and  more  artful, 
continuing  as  before,  the  old  woman  was  presently  ar-  1688.  ' 
rested,  and  charged  with  bewitching  them.  She  had, 
for  a  long  time)  been  reputed  a  witch,  and  she  even* 
seems  to  have  flattered  herself  that  she  was  one.  In- 
deed, her  answers  were  so  "senseless,"  that  the  magis- 
trates referred  it  to  the  doctors  to  say  if  she.  were  not 
"  crazed  in  her  intellects."  On  their  report  of  her  san- 
ity, the  old  woman  was  tried,  found  guilty,  and  executed. 
Though  Increase  Mather  was  absent  on  this  interest- 
ing occasion,  he  had  a  zealous  representative  in  his  son, 
Cotton  Mather,  by  the  mother's  side  grandson  of  the 
"  great  Cotton,"  a  young  minister  of  twenty-five,  a  prod- 
igy of  learning,  eloquence,  and  piety,  recently  settled  as  , 
colleague  with  his  father  over  Boston  North  Church. 
Cotton  Mather  had  an  extraordinary  memory,  stuffed 
with  all  sorts  of  learning.  His  application  was  equal  to 
that  of  a  German  professor.  His  lively  imagination, 
trained  in  the  school  of  Puritan  theology,  and  nourished 
on  the  traditionary  legends  of  New  England,  of  which 
he  was  a  voracious  and  indiscriminate  collector,  was  still 
further  stimulated  by  fasts,  vigils,  prayers,  and  medita- 
tions, almost  equal  to  those  of  any  Catholic  saint.  Of 
a  temperament  ambitious  and  active,  he  was  inflamed 
with  a  great  desire  of  "  doing  good."  Fully  conscious 
of  all  his  gifts,  and  not  a  little  vain  of  them,  like  the 
Jesuit  missionaries  in  Canada,  his  cotemporaries,  he  be- 
lieved himself  to  be  often,  during  his  devotional  exercises, 
in  direct  and  personal  communication  with  the  Deity. 
In  every  piece  of  good  fortune  he  saw  a  special  answer 
to  his  prayers ;  in,  every  mortification  or  calamity,  the 
special  personal  malice  of  the  devil  and  his  agents.  Yet 
both  himself  and  his  father  were  occasionally  troubled 


HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

with- "  Jemptations  to  atheism,"  doubts  which  they  did 
.        x     not,  hesitate  to  ascribe  to  diabolical  influence.    '.The  se- 

1688.  cret  consciousness  of  these  doubts  of  .their  awn  was  per- 
haps one  source  of  their  great  impatience  at  the  doubts 

of  otherp: 

•  *       <.  i  * 

Cotton, Mather  , had  taken  a  very  active  part  in  the 
late  case  of  'witchcraft;  and,  that  he  might  study  the 
operations  of  diabolical  agency  at  his  leisure,  and  thus  be 
furnished  wi^th  evidence  and-  arguments  to  establish  its 
reality,  he  took  the  eldest  of  the  bewitched  children  home 
to  his  own  house.  His  eagerness  to  believe  invited  im- 
posture. His  excessive  vanity  and  strong  prejudices 
made  him  easy  game.  Adroit  and  artful  beyond  her 
years,  the  girl  fooled  him  to  the  top  of  his  bent.  His 
ready  pen  was  soon  furnished  with .  materials  for  "  a 
story  all  made  up  of  wonders,"  which,  with  some  other 
.'  matters ^of  the  same  sort,  and  a  sermon  preached  on  the 

1689.  occasion,  he  presently  published,  under  the  title  of  "  Mem- 
orable Providences  relating  to  Witchcrafts  and  Posses- 
sions," with  a  preface^  in  which  he  warned  all  "  Sad- 
ducees"  that  he  should  regard  their  doubts  for  the  future 
as,  a  personal  insult. 

Cotton  Mather  was,  not  the  only  dupe.  "  The  old 
heresy, of  the  sensual  Sadducees,  denying  the  being  of 
angels  either  good  or  evil,"  says  the  recommendatory 
preface  to  this  book,  signed  by  the  other  four  ministers 
of  Boston,  "  died  not  with  them,  nor  will  it,  whilst  men, 
abandoning  both  faith  and  reason,  count  it  their  wisdom 
to  credit  nothing  but  what  they  see  or  feel. "  How  much 
this  fond  opinion  hath  gotten  ground  in  this  debauched 
age  is  awfully  observable  ;  and  what  a  dangerous  stroke 
it  gives  to  settle  men  in  atheism  is  not  hard  to  discern. 
God  is  therefore  pleased,  besides  the  witness  borne  to 
this  truth  in  Sacred  Writz  to  suffer  devils  sometimes  to 


SALEM   WITCHCRAFT. 

. 

do  -such  things  in  the  world  as  shall  stop  the  mouths  of  CHAPTER 

xx 
gainsay ers,  and  extort  a  confession  from  them."      They          ' 

add  their  testimony  to  the  truth  of  Mather's  statements,  1689. 
which  they  commend  as  furnishing  "  clear  information" 
that  there  is  "both  a  God  and  a  devil,  and  witchcraft:" 
The  book,  was  presently  republished  in  London,  with  a 
preface  by.  Baxter,  who  pronounced  the  girl's  case  so 
"  convincing,"  that  "  he  must  be  a  very  obdurate  Sad? 
ducee  who  would'  not  believe  it." 

Mather's  sermon,  prefixed  to  this  narrative,  is  a  curi- 
ous specimen  of  fanatical  declamation.  "  Witchcraft," 
he  exclaims,  "is  a  renouncing  of  God,  and  the;  ad- 
vancement of  a  filthy  devil  into  the  throne  of  the  Most 
High.  Witchcraft  is  a  renouncing  of  Christ,  and  pre-' 
ferring  the  communion  of  a  loathsome,  lying  devil  be- 
fore all  the  salvation  of  the  Lord  Redeemer.  Witch- 
craft is  a  siding  with  hell  against  heaven  and  earth,  and 
therefore  a  witch  is  not  to  be  endured  in  either  of  them. 
'Tis  a  capital  crime,  and  is  to  ,be  prosecuted  as  a  species 
of  devilisrh  that  would  not  only  deprive  God  and  Christ 
of  all  his  honor,  but  also  plunder  man  of  all  his  comfort. 
Nothing  too  vile  can  be  said  of,  nothing  too  hard  can 
be  done  to,  such  a  horrible  iniquity  as  witchcraft  is !" 
Such  declamations  from  such  a  source,  giving  voice  and 
authority  to  the  popular  superstition,  prepared  the  way 
for  the  tragedy  that  followed.  The  suggestion,  however, 
that  Cotton  Mather,  for  purposes  of  his  own,  deliberately 
got.  up  this  witchcraft  delusion,  and  forced  it  upon  a 
doubtful  and  hesitating  people,  is  utterly  absurd.  And  so 
is  another  suggestion,  a  striking  exhibition  of  partisan 
extravagance,  that  because  the  case  of  the  four  Boston 
children  happened  during  the  government  of  Andros, 
therefore  the  responsibility  of  that  affair  rests  on  hinv 
and  not  on  the  people  of  Massachusetts.  The  Irish  worn* 


152  HISTOUY   QF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

t 
CHAPTER  an  .was, tried  under  a  Massachusetts  law,  and  convicted 

XX  • 

»^  •  by  a  Massachusetts  jury.;  and,  had  Andros  interfered  to 
$68.9.  save  her  life,  to  -the  other  charges  against  'him  would 
doubtless  have  teen  added  that  of  friendship  for  witches. 
Cotton  Mather  seems  to.  have  acted,  in  a  degree,,  the 
part  of  a  demagogue.  Yet  {ie  is  not  to  be  classed  with 
tjiose  tricky  and  dishonest  men,  so  common  in  our  times, 
-who  play  upon  popular  prejudices  which  they  do  'not 
share,  in  the  expectation  pf  being  elevated  to  honors  and 
office.  Mather's  position,  convictions,  and  temperament 
alike  called  him  to  serve  on  this  occasion  as  the  organ, 
exponent,  and  stimulator  of  the  popular  faith. 

The  bewitched  girl,  as  she  ceased  to  be  an  object  of 
popular  attention,  seems  to  have  returned  to  her  former 
behavior.       But   the   seed  had   been   sown   on   fruitful 
16 9-2 .•- ground.     After -an  interval  of  nearly  four  years,  three 
j  Feb<     young  girls  in  the  family,  of  Parris,  minister  of  Salem 

village,  now  Danvers,  began  to  exhibit  similar  pranks. 
As  in  the  Boston  case,  a  physician  pronounced  them  be- 
witched, and  Tituba,  an  old  Indian  woman,  the  servant 
of  Parris,  who  undertook,  by  some  vulgar  rites,  to  discov- 
er the  witch,  was  rewarded  by  the  girls  with  the  accu- 
sation of  being  herself  the  cause  of  their  sufferings.  The 
neighboring  ministers  assembled  at  the  house  of  Parris 
'for  fasting  and  prayer.  The  village  fasted ;  and  pres- 
ently a  general  fast  was  ordered  throughout  the  colony. 
The  ".bewitched  children,"  thus  rendered  objects  of  uni- 
versal sympathy  and  attention,  did  not  long  want  imita- 
tors. Several  other  girjbs,  and  two  or  three  women  of 
the  neighborhood,  began  to  be  afflicted  in  the  same  way, 
as  did  also  John,  the  Indian  husband  of  Tituba,  warned, 
it  would  seem,  by  the  fate  of  his  wife. 

Parris   took   a  very   active   part   in  discovering  the 
witches ;  so  did  Noyes,  minister  of  Salem,  described  as 


SALEM  WITCHCRAFT.  "-'    ±53 

"  a  learned,  a  charitable,  and  a  good  man."      A  town  CHAPTER 

'•  XX 

committee  was  soon  formed  for  the  detection  of  the  , 
witches.  Two  of  the  magistrates,  resUent  at  Salem,  en-  1692. 
tered  with  great  zeal  into  the  matter.  The  accusations, 
confined  at  first  to  Tituba  and  two  other  friendless  wom- 
en, one  crazed,  the  other  bed-rid,  presently  included  two 
female  members  of  Parris's  church',  in  which,  as  in  so 
many  other  churches,  there  had  been  some  sharp'  dissen- 
sions. The  next  Sunday  after  this  accusation  Parris 
preached  from  the  verse,  "  Have  I  not  chosen  you  twelve, 
and  one  is  a  devil  ?"  At  the  announcement  of  this  text 
the  sister  of  one  of  the  accused  women  rose  and  left  the 
meeting  house.  She  too  was  accused  immediately  after, 
and  the  same  fate  soon  overtook  all  who  showed  the 
least  disposition  to  resist  the  prevailing  delusion. 

The  matter  had  now  assumed  so  much  importance,  April  11. r 
that  the  deputy  governor — for  the  provisional  govern- 
ment was  still  in  operation — -proceeded  to  Salem  village, 
with  five  other  magistrates,  and  held  a  court  in  the 
meeting  house.  A  great  crowd  was  present.  Parris 
acted  at  once  as  clerk  and  accuser,  producing  the  wit- 
nesses, and  taking  down  the  testimony.  The  accused 
were  held  with  their  arms  extended  and  their  hands 
open,  lest  by  the  least  motion  of  their  fingers  they  might 
inflict  torments  on  their  victims,  who  sometimes  affected 
to  be  struck  dumb,  and  at  others  to  be  knocked  down 
by  the  mere  glance  of  an  eye.  They  -were  haunted, 
they  said,  by  the  specters  of  the  accused,  who  tendered  „•. 

them  a  book,  and  solicited  them  to  subscribe  a  league 
with  the  devil ;  and  when  they  refused,  would  bite,  pinch, 
scratch,  choke,  burn,  twist,  prick,  pull,  and  otherwise 
torment  them.  At  the  mere-  sight  of  the  accused  brought 
into  court,  "the  afflicted"  would  seem  to  be  seized  with 
a  fit  of  these  torments,  fronVwhich,  however,  they  expe- 


. 

1£4  HISTORY,  OF   THE   UN  IT  BIX.  STATES.  , 

\  •  .' 

CHAPTER  rienced  instant  relief 'when the  accused  were  compelled 

:*       to  touch  them.- — infallible  proof,  .to  the  minds  of  the  gap- 

1692.  ing  assembly,  that  these  apparent  sufferings  were  real 

and  the  accusations  -true.   -  The  theory  was,  that  the 

touch  conveyed  back  into  ,the  witch  the  malignant  hu- 

1  mors  shot  forth  from  her  eyes ;   and  learned  references 

were  even  made  to  Des  Cartes,  of  whose  new  philosophy 

some  rumors  had  reached  New  England,  in  support  of 

this  theory. 

.  In  the  examinations  at  Salem  village  meeting  house 
some  very  extraordinary  scenes  occurred.  "  Look  there  !" 
cried  one  of  the  afflicted;  "  there  is  Goody  Procter  on 
the  beam!"'  This  Goody  Procter's  husband,  notwith- 
standing the  accusation  against  her,  still  took  her  side, 
and  had  attended  her  to  the  court ;  in  consequence  of 
which  act  of  fidelity,  some  of  "the  afflicted"  began  now 
to  cry  but  that  he  too  was  a  wizard.  At  the  exclama- 
tion above  cited, "  many,  if  not  all  the  bewitched,  had 
grievous  fits."  Question  by  the  court :  "Ann  Putnam, 
who  -hurts  you  ?"  Answer  :  "  Goodman  Procter,  and 
his  wife  too."  Then  some  of  the  afflicted  cry  out,  "  There 
is  Procter  going  to  take  up  Mrs.  Pope's  feet!"  and  "im- 
mediately her  feet  are  taken  up."  Question  by  the  court : 
"What -do  you  say,  Goodman  Procter,  to  these  things??' 
Answer  :  "  I  know  not :  I  am  innocent."  Abigail  Will- 
iams, another  of  the  afflicted,  cries  out,  "  There  is  Good- 
man Procter  going  to  Mrs.  Pope !"  and  "  immediately 
said  Pope  falls  into  a  fit."  A  magistrate  to  Procter  : 
"You  see  the  devil  will  deceive  you;  the  children,"  so 
all  the  afflicted  were  called,  "could  see  what  you  were 
going  to  do  before,  the  woman  was  hurt.  I  Would  advise 
you  to  repentance,  for  you  see  the  devil  is  bringing  you 
out."  Abigail  Williams  cries  out  again,  "  There  is  Good- 
.  man  Procter  going  to  hurt  Goody  Bibber!"  and  "  imme- 


SALEM  WITCHCRAFT.  ^55 

diately  Goody  Bibber  falls  into  a  fit."     Abigail  Williams  CHAPTER 
and  Ann  Putnam  both  u  made  offer  to  strike  at  Elizabeth      • 
Procter;  but  when  Abigail's  hand  came  near,  it  opened,  1692. 
whereas  it  was  made  up  into  a  fist  before,  and  came  down' 
exceedingly  lightly  as  it  drew  near  to  said  Procter,  and 
at  length,  with  open  and  extended  fingers,  touched  Proc- 
ter's hood  very  lightly;  and  immediately  Abigail  cries 
out,  i  My  fingers,  my  fingers,  my  fingers  burn  !'  and  Ann    ' 
Putnam  takes  on  most  grievously  of  her  head,  and  sinks 
down."      Such  was  the  evidence  upon  which  people- were 
believed  to  be  witches,  and  committed  to  prison  to  be 
tried  for  their  lives  !     Yet,  let  us  not  hurry  too  much  to 
triumph  over  the  past.      In  these  days  of  Animal  Mag- 
netism, have  we  not  ourselves  seen  impostures  as  gross, 
and  even  in  respectable  quarters,  a  headlong  credulity 
just  as  precipitate?     We  must  consider,  also,  that  the 
judgments  of  our  ancestor^  were  disturbed  not  only  by 
wonder,  but  by  fear. 

Encouraged  by  the  ready  belief  of  .the  magistrates 
and  the  public,  "  the  afflicted"  went  on  enlarging  the 
circle  of  their  accusations,  which  presently  seemed  to  de- 
rive fresh  corroboration  from  the  confessions  of  some  of 
the  accused.  Tituba  had  been  flogged  into  a  confession ; 
others  yielded  to  a  pressure  more  stringent  than  blows. 
Weak  women,  astonished  at  the  charges  and  contortions 
of  their  accusers,  assured  that  they  were  witches.be-'' 
yond  all  doubt,  and  urged  to.  confess  as  the  only  possi- 
ble chance  for  their  lives,  were  easily  prevailed  upon  to 
repeat  any  tales  put  into  their  mouths:  their  journeys 
through  the  air  on  broomsticks  to  attend  witch  sacra- 
ments-— a  sort  of  travesty  on  the  Christian  ordinance —  . 
at  which  the  devil  appeared  in  the  shape  of  a  -"small 
black  man ;"  their  signing  the  devil's  book,  renouncing 
their  former  baptism ?  and  being  baptized  anew  by  the 


156  HISTORY    OF    THE   UNITED 

CHAPTER  devil,  who  "dipped'1  them  in  "  Weriham  Pond,"  after 
.     • :     the'  Anabaptist  fashion:     Called  upon  to  tell  who  were 
1692.  present  at  these  sacraments,  the  confessing  witches  Wound 
May  14.  ,iip  with  new  accusations  ;  and,  by  the  time  Phipps  ar- 
riv&d  in  the  colony,  near  a  hundred  persons  were  already 
•in, prison.      The  mischief  was  not  limited  to  Salem.     An 
idea  had  been  taken  up  that  .the  bewitched  could  explain 
the  causes  of  sickness  ;  and  one  of  them,  carried  to  An- 
daver  "fdr  that  purpose,  had  accused   many  persons  of 
witchcraft,  and  thrown  the  whole  village  into  the  greatest 
commotion.     Some  persons  also  had  been  accused  in  Bos- 
ton and  other  towns. 

--It  was  one  of  Phipps's  first  official  acts,  in  which,  no 
doubt,  he  was  governed  by  learned  advice,  to  order  all 
the  prisoners  into  irons.  This  restraint  upon  their  mo- 
tions might  impede  thein,  ft  was  hoped,  in  tormenting 
the  afflicted.  Without  waiting  for  the  meeting  of  the 
General  Court,  to  whom  that  authority  properly  belong- 
ed, Phipps  hastened,  by  advice  of  his.  counsel,  to  organ- 
ize a  special  court  for  the'  trial  of  the  witches.  Stough- 
ton,  the  lieutenant  governor,  was  appointed  president ; 
but  his  cold  and  hard  temper,  his  theological  education, 
and  unyielding  bigotry  were  ill  qualifications  for  such  an 
office.  His  associates,  six  in  number,  were  chiefly  Bos 
ton  men,  possessing  a  high  reputation  for  wisdom  and 
piety,  among  them  Richards,  the  late  agent,  Wait  Win- 
throp,  brother  of  Fitz-John  Winthrop,  and  grandson  of 
the  former  governor,  arid  Samuel  Sewell,  the  two  latter 
i  subsequently,  in  turn,  chief  justices  of  the  province. 
June  2.  The  new  court,  thus  organized,  proceeded  to  Salem, 
and  commenced  operations  by  the  trial  of  an  old  woman 
who  had  long  enjoyed  the  reputation  of  being  a  witch. 
Besides  "  spectral  evidence,"  that  is,  the  tales  of  the 
afflicted,  a  jury  of  women,  appointed  to  make  an  exam- 


SALEM   WITCHCRAFT.  j  5  7 

ination,  found  upon  her  a  wart  or  excrescence,  adjudged  CHAPTER 

to  be  "a  devil's  teat."     A  number  of  old  stories  were  - 

also  raked  up  of  dead  hens,  and  foundered  cattle,- and  1692. 

carts  upset,  ascribed  by  the  neighbors  to  her  incantations. 

On  this  evidence  she  was  brought  in  guilty,  and  hanged 

a  few  days  after,  when  the  court  took  an  adjournment  June  10. 

to  the  end  of  the  month. 

The  first  General  Court  under  the  .new  charter  met 
meanwhile,  and  Increase  Mather,  who  had  returned  in  June  8. 
company  with  Phipps,  gave  an  account  of  his  agency. 
From  a  House  not  well  pleased  with  the  loss  of  the  old 
charter  he  obtained  a  reluctant  vote  of  thanks,  but  he 
received  no  compensation  for  four  years'  expenses,  which 
had  pressed  very  heavily  upon  his  narrow  income.  After 
passing  a  temporary  act  for  continuing  in  force  all  the 
old  laws,  among  others  the  capital  law  against  witch- 
craft, an  adjournment  was  had,  without  any  objection, 
or  even  reference,  so  far  as  appears,  to  the  special  court 
for  the  trial  of  the  witches,  which  surely  would  have 
raised  a  great  outcry  had  it  been  established  for  any  un- 
popular purpose. 

According  to  a  favorite  practice  of  the  old  govern- 
ment, now  put  in  use  for  the  last  time,  Phipps  requested 
the  advice  of  the  elders  as  to  the  proceedings  against  the 
witches.  The  reply,  drawn  up  by  the  hand  of  Cotton  June  15: 
Mather,  acknowledges  with  thankfulness  "the  success 
which  the  merciful  God  has  given  to  the  sedulous  and 
assiduous  endeavors  of  our  honorable  rulers  to  defeat  the 
abominable  witchcrafts  which  have  been  committed  in 
the  country,  humbly  praying  that  the  discovery  of  those 
mysterious  and  mischievous  wickednesses  may  be  per- 
fected." It  advises,  'however,  « critical  and  exquisite 
caution"  in  relying  too  much  on  "  the  devil's  author- 
ity," that  is,  on  spectral  evidence,  or  "  apparent  changes 


-158  .  HISTO.RY    OF  -THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  wrought  in  the  afflicted  by  the  presence  of  the  accused  ;" 
____:_  neither  of  Which,  in  the  opinion  of  the  ministers,  could 
1692.  be  trusted  as  infallible  proof.     Yet.it  was  almost  entirely 
on  this  sort  of  evidence  that  all  the  subsequent  convic- 
tions were  had.    .  Stoughton,  unfortunately,  had  espoused 
the  opinion,  certainly  a  plausible  one,  that  it  was  impos- 
sible for  the  devil  to  assume  the  appearance  of  .an  inno- 
cent man,  or  for  persons  not  witches  to  be  specjtrally  seen 
at  witches'  meetings ;  and  some  of  the  confessing  "witches 
were  prompt  to  flatter  the  chief  justice's  vanity  by  con- 
firming a  doctrine  so  apt  for  their  purposes^ 
June  30.       At  the  second  session  of  the  special  court,  five  women 
were  tried  and  'convicted.     The  others  were  easily  dis- 
posed of;  'but  in  the  case  of  Rebecca  Nurse,  one  of  Par- 
•»         rig's  church  members,  a  woman  hitherto  of  unimpeach- 
-  able  character,  the  jury  at  first  gave  a  verdict  of  acquit- 
tal.    At  the  announcement  of  this  verdict  "the  afflict- 
ed" raised  a  great  clamor.  _   The  "  honored  court"  called 
the  jury's  attention  to  an  exclamation  of  the  prisoner 
during  the  trial,  expressive  of  surprise  at  seeing  among 
the  witnesses  two  of  her  late  fellow-prisoners  :   "  Why 
do  these  testify  against  me  ?  they  used  to-  come  among 
us!"     These  two  witnesses  had  turned  confessors,  and 
these  words  Were  construed  by  the  court  as  confirming 
their  testimony  of  having  met  the  prisoner  at  witches' 
meetings.      The  unhappy  woman,  partially  deaf,  listened 
to  this  colloquy  in  silence.      Thus  pressed  by  the  court, 
and  hearing  no  reply  from  the  prisoner,  the  jury  changed 
their  verdict  and  pronounced  her  guilty.      The  explana- 
tion^ subsequently  offered  in  her  behalf  were  disregarded. 
The  governor,  indeed,  granted  a  reprieve,  but  the  Salem 
committee  procured  its  recall,  and  the  unhappy  woman, 
t     taken  in  chains  to-  the  meeting  house,  was  solemnly  ex- 
July  19.  communicated,  and  presently  hanged  with  the  others. 


SALElVt  WITCHCRAFT.       ,'',*  159 

At  the  third  session  of  the  court,  six  prisoners  were  CHAPTER 
tried  and  convicted,  all  of  whom  were  presently  hanged        ' '   • 
except  Elizabeth  Procter,  whose  pregnancy  was  pleaded  1692. 
in  delay.     Her  true s  and  faithful  husband,  in  spite  of  a  AuS-  5- 
letter  to  the  Boston  ministers,  denouncing  the  falsehood 
of  the  witnesses,  complaining  that  confessions  had  been 
extorted  by  torture,  and  begging  for  a  trial  at  Boston  or 
before  other  judges,  was  found  guilty,  and  suffered  with 
the  rest.      Another  of  this  unfortunate   company  was 
John  Willard,  employed  as  an  officer  to  arrest  the  ac- 
cused, but  whose  imprudent  expression  of  some  doubts 
on  the  subject  had  caused  him  to  be  accused  also.      He 
had  fled,  but  was  pursued  and  taken,  and  was  now  tried 
and  executed.      His  behavior,  and  that  of  Procter,   at 
the  place  of  execution,  made,  however,  a  deep  impres- 
sion on  many  minds. 

A  still  more  remarkable  case  was  that  of  George  Bur-  •  , 
roughs,  a  minister  whom  the  incursions  of  the  Eastern 
Indians  had  lately  driven  from  Saco  back  to  Salem  vil- 
lage, where  he  had  formerly  preached,  and  where  he  now 
found  among  his  former  parishioners  enemies  more  im- 
placable even  than  the  Indians.  It  was  the  misfortune 
of  Burroughs  to  have  many  enemies,  in  part,  perhaps, 
by  his  own  fault.  Encouragement  was  thus  found  to 
accuse  him.  Some  of  the  witnesses  had  seen  him  at 
witches'  meetings  ;  others  had  seen  the  apparitions  of 
his  dead  wives,  which  accused  him  of  cruelty.  These 
witnesses,  with  great  symptoms  of  horror  and  alarm, 
even  pretended  to  see  these  dead  wives  again  appearing 
to  them  in  open  court.  Though  small  of  size,  Bur- 
roughs was  remarkably  strong,  instances  of  which  were 
given  in  proof  that  the  devil  helped  him.  Stoughton 
treated  him  with  cruel  insolence,  and  did  his  best  to 

confuse  and  confound  him.     What  ensured  his  condem- 

» 


160  .HISTORY   .OF  THE    UNITED    STATES. 

'  *> 

CHAPTER  nation  was  a  paper  he  handed  to  the  jury,  an  extract 
from  some  author,  denying  the  possibility  vof  witchcraft. 
1692.  Burroughs's  speech  from  the  gallows  affected  many,  es- 
Aug.  19.  penally' ,  the  fluent  fervency  of  his  prayers,  concluding 
with  the  Lord's  Prayer,  which  no  witch,  it  was  thought, 
could  repeat  correctly.  Several,  indeed,  had  been  al- 
ready detected  tiy  some  slight  error  or  mispronunciation 
in  attempting  it.  •  The  impression,  however,  which  Bur- 
ro.ughs  might  have  produced,  was  neutralized  by  Cotton 
Mather,  who  appeared  on  horseback  among  the  crowd, 
and  took"  occasion  to  remind  the  people  that  Burroughs, 
though  a  preacher,  was  no  "ordained"  minister,  and  that 
the  devil  would  sometimes  assume  even  the  garb  of  an 
angel  of  light. . 

Sept.  9.  At  a.  fourth  session  of  the  court,  six  women  were  tried 
Sept.  17.  and  found  guilty.  At  another  session  shortly  after, 
eight  women  and  one  man  were  convicted,  all  of  whom 
received .  sentence  of  death.  An  old  man  of  eighty,  who 
refused  to  plead,  was  pressed  to  death — a  barbarous  in- 
fliction prescribed  by  the  common  law  for  such  cases. 
.  Ever,  since  the  trials  began,  it  had  been  evident  that 
confession  was  the  only  avenue  to  safety.  Several  of 
those  now  found  guilty  confessed  and  were  reprieved  ; 
but  Samuel  Woodwell,  having  retracted  his  confession, 
along  with  seven  others  who  persisted  in  their  innocence, 
Sept.  23.  was  sent  to  execution.  "  The  afflicted"  numbered  by 
this  time  about  fifty  ;  fifty-five  had  confessed  themselves 
witches  and  turned  accusers ;  twenty  persons  had  al- 
ready suffered  death  ;  eight  more  were  under  sentence  ; 
the  jails  were  full  of  prisoners,  and  new  accusations  were 
added  every  day.  Such  was  the  state  of  things  when 
the  court  adjourned  to  the  first  Monday  in  November. 

Cotton  Mather  employed  this  interval  in  preparing  his 
«  Wonders  of  the  Invisible  "World,"  containing  an  ex- 


SALEM  WITCHCRAFT.  ^  (j  j 

ulting  account  of  the  late  trials,  giving  full  credit  to  the  CHAPTER 
statements  of  the  afflicted  and  the  confessors,  and  vaunt- 
ing   the   good   effects   of  the-  late   executions  in    <t  the  1692. 
strange   deliverance   of  some   that  had  lain   for   many    -, 
years  in  a  most  sad  condition,  tinder  they  knew  not 
what  evil  hand."  r*| 

While  the  witch  trials  were  going  on,  the  governor 
had  hastened  to  Pemaquid,  and  in  accordance  with  in- 
structions brought  with  him  from  England,  though  at 
an  expense  to  the  province  which  caused  loud  complaints, 
had  built  there  a  strong  stone  fort.  Colonel  Church  had 
been  employed,  in  the  mean  time,  with  four  hundred 
men,  in  scouring  the  shores  of  the  Penobscot  and  the 
banks  of  the  Kennebec. 

Notwithstanding  some  slight  cautions  about  trusting 
too  much  to  spectral  evidence,  MatherVbook,  which  pro- 
fessed to  be  published  at  the  special  request  of  the  gov- 
ernor, was  evidently  intended  to  stimulate  to  further  pro- 
ceedings. But,  before  its  publication,  the  reign  of  ter- 
ror had  already  reached  such  a  height  as  to  commence 
working  its  own  cure.  The  accusers,  grown  bold  With 
success,  had  begun  to  implicate  persons  whose  character 
and  condition  had  seemed  to  place  them  beyond  the  possi- 
bility of  assault.  Even  "  the  generation  of  the  children 
of  God"  were  in  danger.  One  of  the  Andover  ministers 
had  been  implicated  ;  but  two  of  the  confessing  witches 
came  to  his  rescue  by  declaring  that  they  had  surrepti- 
tiously carried  his  shape  to  a  witches'  meeting,  in  order  to 
create  a  belief  that  he  was  there.  Hale,  minister  of  Bev- 
erly, had  been  very  active  against  the  witches  ;  but  when 
his  own  wife  was  charged,  he  began  to  hesitate.  A  son 
of  Governor  Bradstreet,  a  magistrate  of  Andover,  having 
refused  to  issue  any  more  warrants,  was  himself  accused, 
and  his  brother  soon  after,  on  the  charge  of  bewitching 
II.— L 


162  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  a  dog.  Both  were  obliged  to  fly  for  their  lives.  Sev- 
_____  eral  prisoners,  by  the  favor  of  friends,  escaped  to  Rhode 
1692.  Island,  but,  finding  themselves  in  danger  there,  fled  to 
New  York,  where  Governor  Fletcher  gave  them  protec- 
tion. Their  property  was  seized  as  forfeited  by  their 
flight.  Lady  Phipps,  applied  to  in  her  husband's  ab- 
sence on  behalf  of  an  unfortunate  prisoner,  issued  a  war- 
rant to.  the  jailer  in  her  own  name,  and  had  thus,  rather 
irregularly,  procured  his  discharge.  Some  of  the  accus- 
ers, it  is  said,  began  to  throw  out  insinuations  even 
against  her.- 

The  extraordinary  proceedings  on  the  commitments 
and  trials  ;  the  determination  of  the  magistrates  to  over- 
look the  most  jobvious  falsehoods  and  contradictions  on 
the  part  of  the  afflicted  and  the  confessors,  under  pre- 
tense that  the  devil  took  away  their  memories  and  im- 
,  posed  upon  their  brain,  while  yet  reliance  was  placed  on 
their  testimony  to  convict  the  accused ;  .the  partiality 
exhibited  in  omitting  to  take  any  notice  of  certain  ac- 
cusations ;  the  violent  means  employed  to  obtain  con- 
fessions, amounting  sometimes  to  positive  torture  mr  the 
total  disregard  of  retractions  made  voluntarily,  and  even 
at  the  hazard  of  life — ail  these  circumstances  had  im- 
pressed the  attention  of  the  more  rational  part  of  the 
community  ;  and,  in  this  crisis  of  danger  and  alarm, 
the  meeting  of  the  General  Court  was  most  anxiously 
awaited. 

October.  When  that  body  assembled,  a  remonstrance  came  in 
from  Andover  against  the  condemnation  of  persons  of 
good  fame  on  the  testimony  of  children  and  others  "un- 
der diabolical  influences."  What  action  was  taken  on 
this  remonstrance-does  not  appear.  The  court  was  chiefly 
occupied  in  the  passage  of  a  number  of  acts,  embodying 
some  of  the  chief  points  of  the  old  civil  and  criminal 


SALEM  WITCHCRAFT.  16£ 

laws  of  the  colony.      The  capital  punishment  of  witch-  CHAPTER 
craft  was  specially  provided  for  in  the  very  terms  of  the        -  •  .. 
English  act  of  Parliament.     Heresy  and  blasphemy  Were  1692. 
also  continued  as  capital  offenses.      By  the  organization  October- 
of  the  Superior  Court  under  the  charter,  the  special  com- 
mission for  the  trial  of  witches  was  superseded.     But  of 
this  Superior  Court  Stoughton  was  appointed  chief  jus- 
tice, and  three  of  his  four  colleagues  had  sat  with  him 
in  the  special  court.  - 

There  is  no  evidence  that  these  judges  had  undergone 
any  change  of  opinion ;  but  when  the  new  court  pro- 
ceeded to  hold  a  special  term  at  Salem  for  the  continua-  1693. 
tion  of  the  witch  trials,  a  decided  alteration  in  public  JaR- 
feeling  became  apparent.  Six  women  of  Andover  re- 
nounced their  confessions,  and  sent  in  a  memorial  to  that 
effect.  Of  fifty-six  indictments  laid  before  the  grand 
jury,  only  twenty-six  were  returned  true  bills.  Of  the 
persons  tried,  three  only  were  found  guilty.  Several 
others  were  acquitted,  the  first  instances  of  the  sort  since 
the  trials  began.  The  court  then  proceeded  to  Charles- 
town,  where  many  Were  in  prison  on  the  same  charge. 
The  case  of  a  woman  who  for  twenty  or  thirty  years 
had  been  reputed  a  witch,  was  selected  for  trial.  Many 
witnesses  testified  against  her ;  but  the  spectral  evidence 
had  fallen  into  total  discredit,  and  was  not  used.  Though 
as  strong  a  case  was  made  out  as  any  at  Salem,  the 
woman  was  acquitted,  with  her  daugter,  grand-daugh- 
ter, and  several  others.  News  presently  came  of  a  re- 
prieve for  those  under  sentence  of  death  at  Salem,  at 
which  Stoughton  was  iso  enraged  that  he  left  the  bench, 
exclaiming,  <•  Who  it  is  that  obstructs  the  course  of 
justice,  I  know  not ;  the  Lord  be  merciful  to  the  coun- 
try !"  nor  did  he  again  take  his  seat  during  that  term; 

At  the  first  session  of  th^  Superior  Court  at  Boston,  April  2$. 


164  HISTORY  OP  THE  UNIT.ED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  grand  jury,  though  sent  out  to  reconsider  the  matter, 

refused  to  find  a  bill  even  against  a  confessing  witch. 
1693.       The  idea  was  already  prevalent' that  some  great  mis- 
takes Jiad  'been  committed  at  Salem.      The  reality  of 
witchcraft  was  still  insisted  upon  as  zealously  as  ever, 
but  the  impression  was  strong  that  the  devil  had  used 
"  the  afflicted5'  as  his  instruments  to  occasion  the  shed- 
ding of  innocent  blood.     On  behalf  of  the  ministers,  In- 
crease Mather  came  out  with  fyis  "  Cases  of  Conscience 
«  i 

concerning  ^Witchcraft j"  in  which,  while  he  argued  with 
great  learning  that  spectral  evidence  was  not  infallible, 
and  that  the  devil  might  assume  the  shape  of  an  innocent 
man,  he  yet  strenuously  maintained  as  sufficient  proof 
confession,  or  "the  speaking  such  words  or  the  doing 
such  things  as  none  but  such  as  have  familiarity  with 
the  devil  ever  did  or  can  do."  .  As -to  such 'as  falsely 
Confessed  themselves  witches,  and  were  hanged  in  con- 
sequence, Mather  thought,  that  was  no  more  -than  they 
deserved. 

King  William's  Vetb  oa  the  .witchcraft  act  prevented 
any  further  trials ;  and  presently,  by  Phipps's  order,  all 
the  prisoners  were  discharged.     To  a  similar  veto  Massa- 
chusetts owes  it  that  heresy  and  blasphemy  ceased  to  ap- 
,"•  pear  as  capital  crimes  on  her  statute-book. 

The  Mathers  gave  still  further  proof  of  faith  unshaken 
Sept.  by  discovering  an  afflicted  damsel  in  Boston,  whom  they 
visited  and  prayed  with,  and  of  whose  case  Cotton  Ma- 
ther wrote  an  account,  circulated  in  manuscript.  This 
damsel,  however,  had  the  discretion  to  accuse  nobody, 
the  specters  that  beset  her  being  all  veiled.  Reason  and 
common  sense,  at  last,  found  an  advocate  in  Robert 
Calef,  a  citizen  of  Boston,  sneered  at  by  Cotton  Mather 
as  "  a  weaver  who  pretended  to  be  a  merchant,"  and 
afterward,  when  he  grew  more  angry,  as  "a  coal  sent 


SALEM  WITCHCRAFT.  i§§ 

from  hell"  to  blacken  his  character — -a  man.  however,  of  CHAPTER 

xx 
sound  intelligence  and  courageous  spirit.     Calef  wrote  an    .  "  ' 

account,  also  handed  about  in  manuscript,  of  what  had  1693. 
been  said  and  done  during  a  visitation  of  the  Mathers  to 
this  afflicted  damsel,  an  exposure, of  her  imposture  and 
their  credulity,  which  so  nettled  Cotton  Mather  that  he 
commenced  a  prosecution  for  slander  against  Calef,  which, 
however,  he.  soon  saw  reason:  to  drop. 

Calef  then  addressed  a  series  of  letters  to  Mather  and 
the  other  Boston  ministers,  in  which  he  denied  and  rid- 
iculed the  reality  of  any  such  compacts  with  the  devil 
as  w,ere  commonly  believed  in  under  the  name  of  witch- 
craft. .  The  witchcraft  spoken  of  in  the  Bible  meant  no 
more,  he  maintained,  than  "  hatred  or  opposition  to  the 
word  and  worship  of  God,  and  seeking  to  seduce  there- 
from by  some  sign" — -a  definition  which  he  had  found  in 
some  English  writer  on  the  subject,  and  which  he  forti- 
fied by  divers  texts. 

It  was,  perhaps,  to  furnish  materials-  for  a  reply  to 
Calef  that  a  circular  from  Harvard   College,  signed  by  1695. 
Increase  Mather  as  president,  and  by  all  the  neighboring  March  5- 
ministers  as  fellows,  invited  reports  of  "  apparitions,  pos- 
sessions,   enchantments,    and    all   extraordinary   things, 
wherein  the  existence  and  agency  of  the  invisible  .'world 
is  more  sensibly  demonstrated,"  to  be  used  "  as  some  fit 
assembly  of  ministers  might  direct."     But  the  "  invisi- 
ble world". was  fast  ceasing  to  be  visible,  and  Cotton    r 
Mather  laments  that  in  ten  years   scarce  five-  returns 
were  received  to  this  circular. 

Yet  the  idea  of  some  supernatural  visitation  at  Sa-  , 

lem  was  but  very  slowly  relinquished,  being  still  persisted 
in  even  by  those  penitent  actors  in  the  scene  who  con- 
fessed and  lamented  their  own  delusioji  and  blood-guilt- 
iness. Such  were  Sewell,  .one  of  the  judges ;  NoyesJ 


166  HISTORY   OF    THE'UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  one  of  the  most  active  prosecutors  m}  and  several  of  the 
•  jurymen  who  had  sat  on  the  trials.  The  witnesses  upon 

1693.-  whose  testimony  so  many  innocent  persons  had  suffered 
Were  never  called  to  any  account.  When  Calef  s  letters 

1700.  were  presently  published  in  London,  together  with  his 
account  of  the  supposed  witchcraft,  the  book  was  burned 
in  the  college  yard  at  Cambridge  by  order  of  Increase 
Mather.  The  members  of  the  Boston  North  Church 
caine  out  also  with  a  pamphlet  in  defense  of  their  pas- 

1697,  tors.  Hale,  minister  of  Beverly,  in  his  "  Modest  Inquiry 
into  the  Nature  of  Witchcraft,"  and  Cotton  Mather  in 

1702.  his  "  Magnalia,"  though  they  admit  there  had  been  "a 
going  too  far"  in  the  affair  at  Salem,  are  yet  still  as  stren- 
uous as  ever  for  the  reality  of  witchcraft.  Nor  were 
they  without  support  from  abroad.  Dr.  Watts,  then  one 
of  the  chief  leaders  of  the  English  Dissenters,  wrote  to 
Cotton  Mather,  "  I  am  persuaded  there  was  much  agen- 
cy of  the  devil  in  those  affairs,  and  perhaps  there  were 
some  real  witches. too.n  Twenty  years  elapsed  before  the 
heirs  of  the  victims,  and  those  who  had  been  obliged  to 
fly  for  their  lives,  obtained  some  partial  indemnity  for 
their  pecuniary  losses.  Stoughton  and  Cotton  Mather, 
though  they  never  expressed  the  least  regret  or  contrition 
for  their  part  in  the  affair,  ^till  maintained  their  places 
in  the  public  estimation.  Just  as  the  trials  were  con- 
cluded, Stoughton,  though  he  held  the  king's  commis- 
sion  as  lieutenant  governor,  was  chosen  a  counselor — a 
mark  of  confidence  which  the  theocratic  majority  did  not 
choose  to  extend  to  several  of  the  moderate  party  named 
in  the  original  appointment.  Stoughton  was  annually  re- 
elected  a  counselor  as  long  as  he  lived.  Moody,  because 
he  had  favored  the  escape  of  some  of  the  accused  parties, 
found  it  necessary  to  resign  his  pastorship  of  the  First 
Church  of  Boston,  and  to  return  again  to  Portsmouth. 


LAWS    OF  MASSACHUSETTS.  J  Q  7 


Yet  we  need  less  wonder  at  the  pertinacity  with  which  CHAPTER 
this  delusion  was  adhered  to,  when  we  find  Addison  ar-   • 
guing  for  the  reality  of  witchcraft   at  the  same  time  1693'. 
that  he  refuses  to  believe  in  any  modern  instance  of  it; 
and  even  Blackstone,  half  a  century  after,,  gravely  de- 
claring that  "  to  deny  the  possibility,  nay,  actual  exist- 
ence of  witchcraft  and  sorcery,  is  at  once  flatly  to  con- 
tradict the  revealed  word  of  God  in  various  passages  both 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testament."'.- 

The  witchcraft  delusion  was  hardly  over  when  Boston 
was  visited  by  a  pestilential  disease,  probably  the  yellow  June, 
fever,  brought  there  by  a  fleet  and  army  from  the  West 
Indies,  ordered  to  Boston  to  co-operate  in  an  attack  on 
Canada.  But,  as  no  notice  had  been  received  of  this 
intended  expedition,  there  were  no  preparations  to  co- 
operate. The  five  hundred  soldiers  kept  on  foot  by  Mas- 
sachusetts were  absent  at  the  eastward,  scouring  the 
banks  of  the  Saco  and  the  Kennebec.  The  auxiliary 
fleet  and  army  arrived  in  a  totally  disabled  state,  more 
than  half  the  men  having  perished.  No  expedition  against 
Canada  could  be  undertaken;  but  Phipps  succeeded  in 
arranging  a  peace  with  the  Eastern  Indians,  not  des-  Aug. 
tined,  however,  to  be  of  long  continuance. 

Under  the  old  charter  of  Massachusetts  the  laws  had 
existed  in  the  shape  of  a  code,  modified  from  time  to  time 
by  successive  revisions.     This  important  advantage  was 
now  lost.     A  committee,  appointed  at  the  first  session  of  1692. 
the  new  General  Court  to  revise  the  old  laws,  instead  of    June 
bringing  in  a  complete  code,  reported  a  number  of  detach- 
ed acts,  many  of  which  were  vetoed  in  England;      Such 
was  the  fate  of  a  bill  of  rights  passed  at  the  second  ses-     Oct. 
sion,  of  a  habeas  corpus  act,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  of  a 
code   of  criminal  law,  compiled  from  the  old  statutes.    .  . 
Among  the  laws  of  this  session  which  escaped  the  royal 


1(58,  HISTORY  t)F   THE. UN7TED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  veto  >vere  important  acts  founded  on  the  old  polity,  reg- 
nlati-ng  the  distribution  of  intestate  estates,  providing  for. 

.16.93.  the. support  of  common  schools,  and  -conferring,  on  the 
Congregational  system  the  prerogatives  of  an  established 

church.  •     . 

.  •    ••      i  .     - 

.  Every  town  was  obliged  to  support  a  -Congregational 
minister,. toward  whose  salary  all  the  inhabitants  were 
to  be  taxed,  even  those-  who  might  belong  to  dissent- 
ing societies.  The  minister  Lad  a  life-tenure  .in  his 
.office,  from  which  he  could  not  be  displaced  except  for 
oaus.e',  and  by  the  advice ,  and  consent  of  a  council  of 
neighboring  churches.'  The  right  .of  selecting,  or  "call- 
ing" the  minister,  remained  with  the  church,  but '  he 
could  apt  be  V  settled,"  so  as  io  make  the  town  liable 
for  his  support,  without  the  concurrence  of. 'a  majority 
of  th'e  legal  voters.  Thus  two  "  calls"  became  neces- 
sary, one  by  the  church,  the  .other  by  the  parish,  Mas- 
sachusetts contained,  at  this  time,  upward  of  eighty 
churches  ;  the  whole  number  in  New  England  was  about 
one  hundred  and  twenty;  With  very  few  exceptions, 
the  ministers  of  these  churches  had  been  educated  at 
Harvard  College.  In  addition  to  the  hundred  and  fifty 
ministers  already  produced  by  that  institution,  New  En- 
gland had  enjoyed  the  services  of  one >.  hundred  and  five 
ministerial  emigrants  from  the  mother  country,  includ- 
ing/fourteen who- had  left  before  their  .education  was 
completed,  and  as  many  more  who  had  emigrated  since 
the  restoration  of  Episcopacy,  but  excluding  some  twen- 
ty-cithers, whom  Cotton  Mather,  •  in  his  "  Magnalia,1' 
classes  as  "  anomalies,  either  so  erroneous  in  their  prin- 
ciples, -or. so  scandalous  in  their  practices,  or  so  disagree- 
able to'  the  church  order  for'  which  the  country  was 
.  planted,"  tha.t  he  can  not  well  "crowd  them  into  the 
company  of  our  worthies,"  though  he  admits  that  among 


LAWS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS.  -|  g  9 

the  number  were  some  •"  godty.  Anabaptists"  and  some  CHAPTER 
"  godly  Episcopalians.1*  .   -  • '  •  ' 

Travel,  play,  or  work  on  the  Lord's  day  were  pro?  16$3, 
hibited  by  statute,  and,  the  constables  and  tithing  men 
were  specially  charged  *<  to^estrain  all  persons  fromswim- 
,ming  in  the  waters,  unnecessary  and  unreasonable  walk- 
ing in  the  streets  or  fields  of  the  town  of  Boston  or  other 
places,  keeping  open  their  shops,  or  following  their  secu- 
lar occasions  or  recreations  in"  the  evening  preceding  the, 
Lord's  day,  or  any  part  of  said  day  or  evening  follow- 
ing." 

Though  the  first  attempts  at  criminal  legislation  had 
been  defeated  by  the  royal  veto,  two  characteristic  acts 
were  soon  allowed  to  pass,  the  one  providing  a  punish-  1694. 
ment  for  adultery,  the  other  for  atheism  and  blasphemy,  1698. 
capital  offenses  under  the  old  code.  ,  In  cases  of  .adul- 
tery, the  guilty  parties  were  "to  be  set  upon  the -gal- 
lows, with  a  rope  about  their  necks,  the  other  end  to  be 
cast  over  the  gallows,  and  in  the  way  from  thence  to  the 
common  jail  to  be  severely  whipped,  not  exceeding  forty 
stripes,  and  forever  after  to  wear  a  capital  A,  of  two 
inches  long  and  proportional  bigness,  cut  out  in  cloth  of 
a  contrary  color  to  their  clothes,  and  sewed  upon  their 
upper  garments,  on  the  outside  of  their  arm-,  or  on  their 
back  in  open'  view/'  and  whenever  caught  without  this 
badge  -to  be,  whipped  fifteen  stripes.  Atheism  and  blas- 
phemy, including  the  offense  of  denying,  any  one  of  the 
canonical  books  of  Scripture  to  be  the  inspired  word  of 
God,  were  to  be  punished  with  six  months'  imprisonment,' 
to  be  continued  till  sureties  were  given  for  gooct  behav- 
ior ;  setting  in  the  pillory  ;  whipping ;  "boring  through,  the 
tongue  with  a  red  hot  iron  ;  sitting  on  the  gallows  with 
a  rope  about  the  neck  ;  any  two  of  these  punishments  at 
the  discretion  of  the  court. .  These  penalties  fell  short, 


170  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  as  we  shall  presently  see, -of  those  enacted  in  Maryland 
.  .and  Virginia  for  the  same  offenses. 

1693.  Under  the  new  charter  of  Massachusetts,  the  English 
practice  was  introduced  of  issuing  commissions  to  cer- 
tain persons  in  each  county  as  justices  of  the  pea,ce,  to 
whom  also  a  civil  jurisdiction  as  to  sums  less  than  forty 
shillings  was  presently  given.  The  judiciary,  as  finally 

1698.  organized  by  statute,  included  a  Superior  Court  of  five 
judges,  to  which  was  assigned  all  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
English  Common  Pleas,  King's  Bench,  and  Exchequer ; 
County  Courts  of  Common  Pleas  for  smaller  civil  cases ; 
and  Courts  of  Sessions,  composed  of  all  the  justices  in 
each  county,  for  the  trial  of  inferior  criminal  cases  and 
.  the  management  of  county  affairs.  Separate  Courts  of 
,  Probate  were  established  for  the  settlement  of  the  estates 
of  deceased  persons.  A  Court  of  Chancery  was  once  pro- 
vided, but  as  its  organization  was  not  approved  by  the 
king,  that  part  of  the  scheme  was  dropped,  and  Massa- 
chusetts, remained  without  any  equity  jurisdiction.  Four 
separate  judiciary  acts  had  to  be 'passed  before  the  mat- 
ter could  be  satisfactorily  arranged.  An  attorney  general 
was  appointed  to  conduct  public  prosecution,  but  as  yet 
the  practice  of  the  law  seems  not  to  have  existed  in  New 
England  as  a  separate  profession.  Neither  Stoughton 
nor  any  of  his  colleagues  on  the  bench  had  been  educated 
as  lawyers. 


PENNSYLVANIA. 


CHAPTER    XXL 

-  ' 

PROGRESS  AND  CONCLUSION  OF  THE  FIRST'  INTERCO- 
LONIAL WAR.  BOARD  OF  TRADE  AND  PLANTATIONS. 
ENFORCEMENT  OF  RESTRICTIONS  ON  COLONIAL  COM- 
MERCE. 

T  T  HILE  New  England  and  New  York  were  Buffer-  CHAPTER 
ing  from  war,  superstition,  and  the  bitterness  of  faction,  •  ' 
Pennsylvania  was  not  without  internal  troubles.  These  • 
troubles  originated  with  George  Keith,  a  Scotch  Quaker, 
formerly  surveyor  general  of  East  Jersey,  and  at  this 
time  master  of  the  Quaker  school  at  Philadelphia,  and 
champion  of  the  Quakers  against* Cotton  Mather  and  the 
Boston  ministers.  Pressing  the  doctrines  of  non-resist- 
ance to  their  logical  conclusion,  Keith  advanced  the  opin-  J.692. 
ion  that  Quaker  principles  were  not  consistent  with  the 
exercise  of  political  authority.  He  also  attacked  negro- 
slavery  as  inconsistent  with  those  principles.  There  is 
no  surer  way  of  giving  mortal  offense  to  a  sect  or  a  par- 
ty than  to  call  upon  it  to  be  consistent  with  its  own 
professed  doctrines.  Keith  was  disowned  by  the  yearly 
meeting,  but  he  forthwith  instituted  a  meeting  of,  his 
own,  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  Christian  Quakers. 
In  reply  to  a  "  Testimony  of  Denial"  put  forth  against 
him,  he  published  an  "  Address,"  in  which  he  handled 
his  adversaries  with  very  little  ceremony.  He  was  fined 
by  the  Quaker  magistrates  for  insolence,'  and  Bradford, 
the  only  printer  in  the  colony,  was  called  to  account  for 
having  published  Keith's  address.  Though  he  obtained 
a  discharge,  Bradford,  however,  judged  it  expedient  to 


172  fllSTORy,  OF.  THE    UNITED    STATES. 

!  c  UMPTEEN  remove  with  his  types  to  New  York,  which  now  first  ob- 

ta  tained  a  printing  press".. 

1692.  The  Episcopalians  and  other  non-Quakers  professed 
great  sympathy  for  Keith,  and  raised  a  loud  outcry 
against  Quaker  intolerance.  Keith  himself  presently 
embraced  Episcopacy,  went  to  England,  and  took  orders 
'  there.  '  The  Quaker  magistrates  were  accused  of  hostil- 
ity to  the  Church  of  England)  and  in. the  alleged  malad- 
ministration of  his  agents,  joined  with  his  own  suspected 
loyalty,  a  pretense  was  found  for  depriving  Penn  of  the 
government— ^a  step  taken  by  the.  Privy  Council  without 
any  of  the  forms,  or,  indeed,  any  authority  of  law,  though 
justified  by  the  opinions  of  some  of  the  leading  Whig 
lawyers  of  that  day. 

A  similar  stretch  of  power  was  exercised  at  the  same 
time  in  the  case  of  Penn's  late  opponent,  Lord  Balti- 
more. After  a  tedious  examination,  during'  which  no 
other  charge  was  brought  against  him  except  that  he 
was.  a  papist,  on  that  single  ground,  by  an  order  in  coun- 
cil, he  was  deprived  jof  the  administration  of  Maryland, 
though  still  allowed  to  enjoy 'his  quit-rents,  tonnage  duty, 
and  other  income.*  • 

The  government  of  Maryland  for  the  past  three  years 
had  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  insurgents.  Being 
/thus  •  assumed  by  the  crown,  William  sent  .out  Lionel 
Copley  as,  royal  governor,  with  whom  went  Thomas 
Bray,  ecclesiastical  commissary  for  the  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don. An  Assembly  called  by  Copley  made  a  complete 
revolution  in  the  .political  and  ecclesiastical  constitution 
of  the  province.  All  the  existing  l,aws  were  repealed, 
iand  a  new  code  enacted,  founded,  indeed,  for  the  .most 
part,  on  previous  legislation,  but  differing  in  some  essen- 
tial particulars.^  The  system  of  the  non-pre-eminence 
of  any  religious  sect,  and  of  the  support  by  each  sect  of 


MARYLAND   AND   VIRGI-NIA.        •,     .  ^73 

its  own1  clergy,  introduced  at  the  planting  of  the  colony  CHAPTER 
and  hitherto    maintained,   was   now  overturned.       The          .' 
Church  of  England  was  established  by  law.      The  prov-  1692-. 
ince  being  divided  into  thirty  parishes,  glebes  were  set 
apart  for  the  clergy ;  and  every  tithable,  whatever  his 
own  private  opinions,  was  subjected  to  a  tax  of  forty 
pounds  of  tobacco  for  the  support  of  the  parish  ministers. 
This  act  was  disallowed  by  King  William,  ;on  account 
of  some  claims  of  political  privileges  subjoined  to  it.;  but 
already  it  had  been  carried  into  effect ;   and  ultimately, 
in  a  new  draft,  obtained  the  royal  sanction.     Nor  did 
the  matter  stop  here.      In  the  very  province  which  they 
had  planted,  the  Catholics  soon  found  themselves  dis- 
franchised, and  their  social  as  well  as  political  rights 
cruelly  invaded. 

,  A  hearing  before  the  Privy  Council  of -the  complaints  1689. 
of  the  Virginians  against  Effingham  had  resulted  in  a  Sept> 
recommendation  to  abandon  some  of  the  new  fees,  and 
the  claim  also  of  the  governor  to  license  all  attorneys. 
The  fines  and  forfeitures,  about  the  appropriation  of 
which  there  had  been  some  dispute,  were  declared  to  be 
at  the  sole , disposal  of  the  crown;  but  their  appropria- 
tion to  the  "  better  government"-  of  the  province  was 
recommended,  at  the  sole  discretion  of  the  king.  The 
personal  charges  against  Effingham  were  not  sustained. 
King  William  renewed  his  commission,  but  he  did  not 
again  return  to  the  colony. 

Nicholson,  the  late  lieutenant  governor  of  New  York, 
not  having  interest  enbugh  to  compete  with  Slough ter 
for  the  appointment  to  that  province,  accepted  a  place 
as  Effingham's  lieutenant,  and,  as  such,>  was  presently  1690. 
sworn  into  office.      At  the  same  time  was  laid  before  Jum<4 
the  council  the  commission  of  James  Blair  as  commis- 
sary of  the  Bishop  of  London.     Blair,  a  Scotsman  .by 


174  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  birth,  a  man  of  zeal  and  talent,  had  first  come  to  Vir- 

XXI. 

.'     ginia,  five  years  before,  as  a  missionary  preacher.     Hav- 

1690.  ing  presently  attained  a  seat  in  the  council,  he  acted 
for  many  years  a  conspicuous  part.     His  new  author- 
ity as  .commissary  resembled,  in  some  respects,  that  of 
a  pope's  legate.      He 'represented  the  person  and  dignity 
of  the  "  right  reverend  father  in  God,"  from  whom  he 
derived  his  commission  ;  he  made  visitations,  inquired 
into  and  corrected  -the  discipline  of  the  churches,  and 
acted,  in  fact,  with  the  power  and  authority  of  a  bishop. 
Highly  zealous  for  the  church,  he  relished  also  civil  au- 
thority, and  fof-  the  next  fifty  years  showed  himself,  in 
the  struggle  for  power,  more  than  a  match  for  Nicholson 
and  his  successors.      He  was  allowed,  by  way  of  salary, 
£100  per  annum  out  of  the  quit-rents. 

Blair  had  already  revived  the  long-deferred  project  of 
a  college  for  Virginia.  Nicholsikn,  always  busy  about 
something,  zealously  seconded  the  proposal.  A  consider- 
able subscription  having  been  obtained,  the  Assembly 

1691.  presently  sent  Blair  to  England,  with  an  address  rec- 
,  April,    ommending  the  proposed  college  to  their  majesties'  pat- 
ronage. .   The  king  granted  a  charter  creating  a  corpo- 
ration^  to  be  composed  of  a  president,  six  professors  or 
masters,  with  a  hundred  scholars,  more  or  less,  entitled 
to  a  representative  in  the  House  of  Burgesses,  and  sub- 
ject to  the  supervision  of  a  rector  and  eighteen  visitors, 

.who  possessed  the  power  to  fill  their  own  vacancies.  It 
was  the  great  object  of  this  college,  the  second  in  the 
British  colonies,  to  educate  in  Virginia  a  domestic  suc- 
cession of  Church  of  England  ministers.  But  the  edu- 
cation of  the  Indians  was  not  overlooked.  Robert  Boyle 
made  a  large  donation  for  that  purpose,  and  many  Indian 
children  were  taught  in  a  school  attached  to  the  college. 
The  Assembly  granted,  in  aid  of  the  funds,  a  duty  on 


LAWS   OF   VIRGINIA.  jjj  5 

skins  and  furs.      The  king  gave  outstanding  quit-rents,  CHAPTER 
valued  at  ^£2000,  twenty  thousand  acres  of  choice  land,  ___!____ 
the  office  of  surveyor  general,  which  the  college  exer^  1691. 
cised  by  deputies,  and  the  produce  of  the  intercolonial 
duty  on  tobacco.     He  even  added  d£lO,000  in  money 
— a  gratuity  which  seemed  very  extravagant  to  Attor- 
ney-general Seymour.  •   "  Consider,  sir,"  said  the  earn- 
est Blair,  "  that  the  people  of  Virginia  have  souls  to 
save."     "  Damn  your  souls,"  was  the  gruff  reply  :  "  make 
tobacco" — a,  rud&  but  emphatic  expression  of  the  cur- 
rent idea  that  the  colonies  existed  only  for  the  consump- 
tion  of  English   manufactures,  and  the  production  of 
merchantable  articles  for  the  benefit  of  English  trade. 

At  two  successive  Assemblies  held  by  Nicholson  sever- 
al important  acts  were  passed.  The  scheme  for  establish- 
ing towns  was  revived  ;  but,  owing  to  the  obstacles  it  en- 
countered, and  the  opposition  of  the  English  merchants, 
was  soon  suspended.  "  Forasmuch  as  for  some  time  past 
the  inhabitants  of  this  country  have  suffered  great  want 
of  linen  by  reason  of  the  wars,"  every  tithable,  by  the  re- 
vival of  an  old  law,  was  required  to  produce  annually  one 
pound  of  dressed  hemp  or  flax.  .  To  prevent  "  divers  and 
sundry  deceits  and  abuses"  by  tanners,  curriers,  and  shoe- 
makers, there  were  to  be  appointed,  as  in  Massachusetts,  . 
searchers  and  examiners  of  leather,  shoes,  and  boots. 
"  And  for  the  avoiding  of  all  ambiguities  and  doubts 
which  may  and  do  grow  and  djise  upon  the  definition 
and  interpretation  of  this  word  leather,  belt  enacted  and 
declared  that  the  hides  and  skins  of  ox,  steer,  bull,  cow, 
calf,  deer,  goats,  and  sheep,  being  tanned,  shall  be,  and 
ever  hath  been  reported  and  taken  leather."  The  act 
imposing  duties  on  liquors  imported  from  elsewhere  than 
England  was  continued  in  force,  the  produce,  of  it,  as  well 
as  of  the  duty  on  skins  and  furs,  being  made  payable  to 


J.76  HISTORY    OF   THE, UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  a  special  colonial  treasurer — an  office  now  first  created 

XXI 

>    '      hy  th ft  Assembly.  as1  distinct  from  the  king's  receiver  gen- 
ii. 6  92.  eral,  to  whom  the  export  duty  on  tobacco  was  payable. 
An  act  ,"  for  the  more  effectual  suppressing  the  sev- 

-eral  sins  and,  offenses  of  swearing,  cursing,  profaning 
God's  holy  name,  Sabbath  abusing,  drunkenness,  forni- 
cation, and  adultery,"  the  handiwork,  we  may  suppose, 
of  Mr.  Commissary  Blair,  imposed  on  every  oath  the  pen- 
alty of  one  shilling;  ."and  forasmuch  as  nothing  is  more 

'  acceptable*  to  God  than  the  true  and  sincere  service  and 
worship  of  him  according  to  his  holy  will,  and  thai- the 
holy  keeping  of  the  Lord's  day  is  a  principal  part  of  the 
true  service  of  God,  which  in  very  many  places  of  this 
dominion  hath  been  and  is  now  profaned  and  neglected 
by  a  disorderly  sort  of  people,"  it  is  therefore  enacted 
"that  there  shall  be  no  meetings/ assemblies,  or  con- 
course of  people  out  of  their  own  .parishes  on  the  Lord's 
day,  and  that  no  person  or  persons  whatsoever  shall  travel 
upon  the  said  day,  and  that  no  other  thing  or  matter 
whatsoever  be  done  on  that  day  which  tends  to  the  prof- 
anation, of  the  same,"  under  pain  of  twenty  shillings. 
"And  whereas  that  odious  and  loathsome  sin  of  drunk- 
enness is  of  top  common  use  within  this  dominion,  being 
the  rqot  and  foundation  of  many  other  enormous  sins — 
as  bloodshed,  stabbing,  murder,  swearing,  fornication, 
adultery,  and  such  like,  to  the  great  dishonor  of  God 
and  of  this  dominion,  the  overthrow  of  many  good  arts 
and  manual  trades,  the  disabling  of  diverse  workmen, 
arid  the  general  impoverishing  of  many  of  their  majesty's 
good  subjects,  abusively  wasting  the  good  creatures  of 
God.;"  for  the  suppression  of  the  same,  all  drunkards 

•  wefre  to  be  fined  ten-  shillings  ;  if  not  able,  to  pay,  to  be 
committed  to  the  stocks  for  the  space  of  three  full  hours. 
Foraicators  were  to  be  fined  ten  pounds  sterling;  adul- 


-r. 


OF  VIRGINIA.    ,,.  ^77 

'       •  vV        •.•*•' 

terers  twice  as  much;  or,  if  unable  to  pay,  to  be  whipped  CHAPTER 
"on  his,  her,  or  their  bare  backs  thirty  lashes  well  laid 
on,"  or  be  imprisoned  three  months.  "  And  whereas  1692. 
many  inhabitants  of  fhis  country,  of  dissolute  and  ill  lives 
and  conversations,  entertain  many  times  in  their  houses 
women  of  ill  names  and  reputation,  suspected  of  incon- 
tinency,  or  by  other  indirect  means  provide  for  the  main* 
tenance  of  such  women,  whose  company  they  frequent,"  - 
every  person  so  offending  or  frequenting  the  company  of 
such  lewd  women,  "  after  public  admonition  to  avoid  the 
same,  given  by  the  ministers  and  church-wardens  by  and 
with  the  consent  of  the  vestries,"  or  by  the  church-war- 
dens alone  if  there  be  no  minister,  "shall,  forfeit  and 
pay  for  every  time  it  shall  be  proved  that  he  or  they  have 
been  in  company  of  such  woman  or  women,  after  such 
admonition  as  aforesaid,  as  if  he  or  they  had  been  really 
convicted  of  adultery  ;  and  every  woman  guilty  of  the 
same  offense  shall  receive  the  same  punishment."  -  All 
fines  under  this  act  were  to  be  appropriated  one  third 
to  the  informer,  one  third  toward  the  church  or  chapel 
of  ease  of  the  parish,  and  the  remaining  third  to  the- 
maintenance  of  the  minister. 

An  "  act  for  suppressing  outlying  slaves,^'  after  setting 
forth  jin  a  preamble  that  "  many  times  negroes,  mulat- 
toes,  and  other  slaves  unlawfully  absent  themselves  from 
their  masters  and  mistresses'  service,  and  lie  hid,  and  lurk  t  . 
in  obscure  places,  killing  hogs,  and  committing  other  in- 
juries to  the  inhabitants  of  this  dominion,"  authori2es 
any  two  justices,  one  being  of  the  quorum,  to  issue  their 
warrant  to  the  sheriff  for  the  arrest  of  any  such  outly- 
ing slaves.  Whereupon  the  sheriff  is  to  raise  the  neces- 
sary force,  and  if  the  slaves  resist,  run  away,  or  refuse 
to  surrender,  they  may  be  lawfully  killed  and  destroyed 
"  by  guns,  or  any  other  way  ^whatsoever,"  the  master, 
II.— M 


j,78  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNJT.ED    STATES. 

t 

CHAPTER  in  such  cases,  to  receive  from  the  public  four  thousand 
of  tobacco  for  the  loss  of  his-slave. 


1692".  Individual  runaways  seem  .at  times  to  nave  made 
1701.  themselves  formidable.  We  find,  £  few  years  later,  an 
act  setting  forth  that  one  Billy,  a  negro,  slave  to  John 
Tillet,  "has  several  years  unlawfully  absented  himself 
from  his  master's  service,  lying  out,  and  lurking  in  ob- 
scure places,  supposed  within  the  counties  of  James  City, 
York,  and  Kent,  devouring  and  destroying  the  stocks,  and 
crops,  robbing  'the  houses  of,  and  committing  and  threat- 
ening other  injuries  to  several  of  his  majesty's  good  and 
•liege  people  within  this  his  colony  and  dominion  of  Vir- 
ginia, in  contempt  of  the  good  laws  thereof;"  wherefore 
the  said  Billy  is  declared  .by  the  act  guilty,  of  a  capital 
offense;  and  "  whosoever  shall  kill  and  destroy  the  said 
negro  slave  Billy,  and  apprehend  and  deliver  him  to  jus- 
tice," is  to  be  rewarded  with  a  thousand  pounds,  of  to-- 
'  bacco;  arid  all  persons  entertaining  him,  or  trading  and 
trucking  with  him,  ate  declared  guilty  of  felony  ;  his 
master,  if  he  be  killed,  to  receive  as  compensation  from 
the  public  four  .thousand  pounds  of  tobacco. 

The  same  statute  above  cited  for  suppressing  outly- 

ing slaves,  contains  the  first  provision  to  be  found  in  the 

."Virginia  laws  on  the  subject  of  the  intermixture  of  the 

races:  '"  Fpr  the  prevention  of  that  abominable  mixture 

and  spurious  'issue  which  hereafter  may  increase  in  this 

dominion,  as  well  by  negroes,  mukttoes,  .and  Indians 

•intermarrying  with  English  or  other  White  women,  as 

t>y.  their  unlawful  accompanying  with  one  another,"  any 

free  white  ."man  or  woman  intermarrying  with  a  negro, 

•mulatto,,  or  Indian,  was  to  be  forever  banished-  —  a  pun- 

1705.  ishnient  changed  ,a  few  years  after  to  six  months'  im- 

prisonment and  a  fine  of  ten  pounds.     White  women' 

having  mulatto  children  without  fnarriage  were  to  pay 


LAWS   OF  VIRGINIA. 


179* 


fifteen  pounds  sterling,  or  be  sold  for  five  years,  that  pe-  CHAPTER 

riod,  if  they  were  servants,  to  take  effect  from  the  ex- . '._ 

piration  of  their  former  term,  the  child  to  be  bound  out  1692. 
as  a  servant  till  thirty  years  of  age. 

Another  clause  of  this  act  placed  a  serious  restraint 
upon  emancipation,  by  enacting  that  no  negro  or  mulatto 
slave  shall  be  set  free,  'unless  the  emancipator  pay  for 
his  transportation  out  of  the, country  within  six  months. 
Yet  the  manumission  was  not  void.  The  idea  of  re- 
ducing again  to  slavery  persons  once  made  free  was  not 
yet  arrived  at.  A  violation  of  the  act  exposed  to  a  pen- 
alty often  pounds,  to  be  appropriated  toward  the  trans- 
portation out  of  the  colony  of  the  freed  slave. 

The  practice  of  special  summary  tribunals  for  the 
trial  of  slaves  charged  with  crimes  was  now  first  intro- 
duced— another  remarkable  deviation  from  the  English  • 
law.  Any  slave  guilty  of  any  offense  punishable  by  the 
law  of  England  with  death  or  loss  of  member,  was  to  be 
forthwith  committed  to  the  county  jail,  there  to  be  kept 
"  well  laden  with  irons,"  and,  upon  notice  'of  the  fact, 
the  governor  was  to  issue  a  commission  to  any  persons  ^ 
of  the  county  he  might  see  fit,  before  whpm  the  prisoner 
was  to  be  arraigned,  indicted,  tried  "  without  the*  so- 
lemnity of  a  jury,"  and  on  the  oath  of  two  witnesses  or 
one  witness,  "  with  pregnant  circumstances'1  or  confes- 
sion, was  to  be  found  guilty  and  sentenced.  The,  sarne^  •' 
act.  by  another  section,  forbade  slaves  to  keep  horses, 
cattle,  or  hogs.  It  also  provided  that  the  owner1  should 
be  liable  for  damage  done  "  by  any  negro  or  other  slave 
living  at  a  quarter  where  there  is  no  Christian  overseer."  '*,.-, 

These  laws  indicate  the  start  which  the  slave  trade 
had  recently  received,  and  the '.  rapid  increase  in  Virginia 
of  slave  population. 

Considering   "that  great  .and  many  are  the  dangers 


180  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNfT^D  STATES. 


(JHAPTER  which  surround  and  threaten  this  dominion,  f  being  a  de- 
_  fenseless  and  open  country,  subject  te  invasions  and  in- 
1692.  cursions  of  our  inveterate  enemies,  most  neighboring 
countries  having  already  been  involved  in  such  difficul- 
ties and  troubles;  that  we  be  not  wholly  surprised  in 
case  we  .be  visited  by  such  afflictions,"  the  Assembly  gave 
their  -sanction  to  a  scheme  already  adopted  by  the  lieu- 
tenant governor  and  council,  of  placing  at  the  heads  of 
the  four  great  rivers  a  lieutenant,  eleven  soldiers,  and 
two  Indians,  "  well  furnished  with  horses  and  other  ac- 
couterments,  to  range  and  scout  about  the  heads  of  the 
said  great  rivers."  A  road  was  also  to  be  laid  out  from 
some  convenient  point  "  above  the  inhabitants  on  the 
north  side  of  James  River,  to  some  place  above  the  in- 
•Jiabitants  on  the  Rappahannoc  River,  to  be  cleared  twen- 
ty-five feet  wide  ;"  and  for  the  next  three  years  no  sur- 
,veys  were  to  be  made  west  of  that  road. 

An  act  of  the  same  session,  repealing  all  former  acts 
ancl  clauses  of  acts  restraining  trade  with  Indians,  and 
declaring  henceforth  "  a  free  and  open  trade  for  all  per- 
sons, at  all  times  and  at  all  places,  with  all  Indians  what- 
1  soever,"  is  of  no.  slight  importance  in  the  judicial  history 
of  Virginia.  Very  shortly  after  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence, while  the  flame  of  liberty  still  burned  bright, 
it  was  decided  by  the  General  Court,  and  that  decision 
was  presently  sustained  by  the  subsequently  -established 
Court  of  Appeals,'  that  the  permission  of  a  free  trade  «t 
all  times  and  places  with  all  Indians,  amounted,  in  -law, 
to  a  guarantee  to  all  Indians  against  being  reduced  to 
slavery  ;  because,  how  can  there  be.  free  trade  with 
slaves  ?  (2  Henning  and  Mumford's  Virginia  Reports, 
149  ;  Pallas  and  al.  vs.  Hill  and  al.)  Under  this  very 
remarkable  decision,  founded  upon  principles  which,  if 
extended  to  the  rest  of  the  statute-book,  would  have  left 


'*.    \INDPAN  SLAVERY   IN  VIRGINIA,  .  £81 

very  little,  if  any,  slave  law  in  Virginia,  a  considerable  CHAPTER 
number  of  the  descendants  of  Indians,  whose  ancestors  ' 
were  made  slaves  of,  or  brought  as  such  into  the  prov-  1692. 
ince  subsequently  to  1692,  have  been  set  at  liberty  by 
the  Virginia  courts.  Law,  however,  is  but  a  feeble  guar- 
antee to  the  ignorant  and  the  helpless.  In  spite  of  these 
decisions,  "  thousands  of  the  descendants  of  Indians  in 
Virginia,"  so  says  Henning,  the  laborious  and  judicious 
editor  of  the  Virginia  statutes,  "are  still  unjustly  depriv- 
ed of  their  liberty."  It  is,  indeed,  only  among  the  slaves 
and  the  free  colored  people  that  any  representatives  are 
now  to  be  found  of  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  Vir- 
ginia— a  genealogy  carefully  preserved  by  a  portion  of 
the  colore(J.  people  there.  As  in  all  those  parts  of  Amer- 
ica where  negro  slavery  prevails,  these  descendants  of  In- 
dians, as  if  to  throw  ridicule  on  the  pride  of  caste,  plume 
themselves  not  a  little  on  their  free  descent.  However 
depressed  in  point  of  fact  or  law,  they  look  with  quite  as 
much  scorn  as  their  white  neighbors  on  those  of  African 
blood.  This  pride  of  caste,  it  may  indeed  be  observed, 
is  always  in  pretty  exact  proportion  to  moral  and  intel- 
lectual degradation,  disappearing  as  humanity  and  en- 
lightenment make  progress.  >  K 

Nicholson  was  soon  superseded  by  Sir  Edmund  An-     Oct. 
dros,  who  received,  in  compensation  for  his  late,  impris- 
onment in  New  England,  the  government  of  Virginia  as 
Effingham's  successor.      In  Virginia  Andros  was  com- 
paratively popular ;  and,  by  collecting   and  preserving 
what  yet  remained  of  the  old  Virginia  records,  he  has 
entitled  himself  to  lasting  gratitude.     An  act,  passed 
shortly  after  his  arrival,  sets  forth   a  royal  patent  to  1693. 
Thomas  Neale  to  establish  a  post  in  the  American  col-    Apnl 
onies  for  the  transportation  of  letters  and  packets,  "-at 
such  rates  as  the  planters  should  agree  to  give,"  or  pro- 


HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED   STATES 

*  CHAPTER  portionable  to  the  rates  of  the  English  post-office.    'Rates 
_____  of  postage  were  accordingly  authorised,  and  the  estab- 
1"693.  lishment  of  a  post-office  in  each  county.      Similar  laws 
being  passed  in  Massachusetts  and  other  colonies,  not, 
however,  without  the  exhibition  of  some  doubts  and  jeal- 
ousy, a  colonial  post-office  system,  though  of  a  very  lim- 
ited and  imperfect  character,  was  presently  established 
under  this  patent. 

1696.  "Another  act,  a  few  years  after,  fixed,  the  salaries 'of 
•  the  ministers  at  sixteen  thousand  pounds  of  tobacco,  be- 
sides perquisites,  and  a  glebe  to  be  provided  by  the  par- 
ish^a  rate  at  which  they  remained  till  the  Revolu- 
tion! '  There  were  at  this  period  about  fifty  parishes, 
but  the,  larger  ones  had  generally  one  or  more  chapels 
of  ease. 

,  1694i  Superseded  in  Virginia,  Nicholson  succeeded  Copley 
as  royal  governor  of  Maryland.  There,  too,  his  restless 
activity  found  exercise.  The  old  Catholic  capital  of  St. 
Mary's  was  abandoned,  and  the  seat  of  government  trans- 
ferred' to  the  Protestant  head-quarters  on  the  Severn, 
where  a  town  had  been  laid  out,  now  named  Annapolis. 
Of  the  ancient  capital  of  St.  Mary's,  the  only  remaining 
traces  are  the  ruins  of  an  old  brick  church.  ' 

-  A  law  was  also  passed  for  establishing  free  schools, 
oae  especially  at  Annapolis,  and  appropriating  toward 
their  endowment  sundry  imposts  on  negroes  and  spirits 
imported?1  and  on  skins,  furs,  beef,  and  pork  exported. 
1696.  A  new. act  for  legalizing  the  church  establishment  in- 
cluded, like  its  predecessor,  sorne  political  guarantees, 
arid,  like  its  predecessor,  was  on  that  account  rejected. 

1691.  After  the  sudden  death  of  Slough  ter,  having  remained 
July.     for  a  year  or  more  under  the  administration  of  Ingolsby, 

1692.  New  York  received- a  new  governor  in  the  person  of  Ben- 
Sept<     jamin  Fletcher,  also  a  military  officer,  needy  and  greedy, 


F-LE'TCHER  GOVERN.OR  OF  NEW  ;¥ORK.    .  J.-g  3 

who  fell,  like  his  predecessor,  entirely  under  the  influence  CHAPTER 

of  the  anti-Leislerian  party.      Fletcher  brought  with  him __ 

presents  for  the  Indians,  military  supplies,  and  two  addi-  1692. 
tional  independent  companies.      New  York  had  .Started 
the  idea  that  the  6ther  provinces  ought  to  be  made  to 
contribute  to  her  defense,  serving  as  she  did  as  a  barrier    . 
agains/fc  Canada';  and,  in  conformity  with  this  suggestion, 
a  royal  letter  presently  conveyed  to  all  the  colonies  ex- 
cept Carolina  an ;  order  to  that  effect,  suggesting,  also,  , 
a  colonial  Congress  for  the  assignment  of  quotas.      A 
few  months  after  Fletcher's  arrival,  a  force  from  Canada  1693. 
of  five  or  six  hundred  men  surprised  three  of  the  Mo-     Feb' 
hawk  castles,  and  took  prisoners  three  hundred  of  their 
warriors.      The  French  desired  to  kill  the  prisoners  by 
way  of  facilitating  the  retreat ;   but  to  this  the  Indian 
allies  would  not  agree.     Schuyler  pursued  from  Albany, 
and  Fletcher  hastily  came  up  from  New  York  with  the 
independent  companies  and  a  body  of  volunteers.      The 
Mohawks  complimented  his  promptitude  by  tlje  name 
of  the   "  Great   Swift  Arrow ;"    but  the   invaders  had 
escaped,  and  the  Indians,  greatly  discouraged  at  their 
heavy  loss,  became  strongly  inclined  to  make. peace  with 
the  French. 

Besides  his  commission  for  New  York,  Fletcher  was 
authorized  to  administer  the  government  of  Pennsylva*. ' 
nia  and  Delaware,  of  which  Penn,  as  we  have  seen,  had 
been  lately  deprived.  He  accordingly  visited  Philadel-"  April.  * 
phia,  and  called  an,  Assembly,  in  which  deputies  from 
both  provinces  were  present.  Penn's  frame  of  govern- 
ment was  disregarded,  the  Assembly  being  modeled  after 
that  of  New  York.  Fletcher  hoped  to  obtain  a  salary 
for  himself  and  some  contributions  toward  the  defense  of 
the  northern  frontier.  The  Quakers,  very '  reluctant  to 
vote  money  at  all,  had  spepial  scruples  about  the  law- 


X84 


HISTORY-OP-  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


CHAPTER  fulness  of  war..    They  were  als6  very  suspicious  of  de- 
._^_  signs  .agains^  their  liberties,  and  refused  to  enter  on  any 

1693.  business  until  the  existing  laws  and  liberties  of  the  prov- 
ince had  been  first  expressly  confirmed:     This  concession 
reluctantly  made,  Fletcher  obtained  the  grant  of  a  small 
«um  of  money,  not,  however,  without  stipulating  that  it 

"  «  should  not  be  dipped  in  blood." 

As  a  facility  toward  the  defense  of  New  York,  Fletch- 
er had  been  authorized  from  England  to  command  the 
militia  of  New  Jersey  and  Connecticut.  He  presently 
.  'Oct.-.  went  te  Hartford  on  this  business.  The  Assembly  quot- 
ed their  charter,  and  Wadsworth,  captain  of  the  Hartford 
company,  drowned  the  reading  of  the  commission  by  or- 
^ering  the  drums  to  beat.  Fitz- John  Winthrop  was  sent 
as  agent  to  England  ;  and  t)ie  objections  taken  to  Fletch- 
er's commission  as  a,  violation  of  the  Connecticut  charter 
were  .sustained.  Connecticut  promised,  however,  to  be 
ready  at  all  times  to  furnish  a  quota  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  men  for  the  defense  of  New  York.  This  decision 
covered  also  the  case  of  Rhode  Island,  the  command  of 
whose  militia,  under  a  similar  commission,  had  been  giv- 
'.  -QIL  to  Phipps. 

Phipps's' administration, was  of  no  long  continuance. 
He  got  into  altercations  on  some  disputed  points  of  au- 
thority first  with  the  king's  collector  at  Boston,  and  next 
with  the  captain  of  a  man-of-war  on  the  coast.  Being 
of  a  hot  temper,  he  used  personal  violence  toward  the 
collector,  and,  after  canirig  the  ckptain,  committed  him 

1694.  to,  prison..     Summoned  'to  England  to  give  an  account 
of  his  conduct,  he  .procured  before  departing,  though  not 
> without  some  difficulty,  an  address  from  the  General 

Court  praying  that  he  might  not  be  removed. 

The  'opposition  in  the  House,  composed  of  ultra  advo- 
cates of  the  old  charter,  was  led  by  Cooke,  one  of  the 


MASSACHUSETTS.  ^  g  5 

r  " 

t  ..''•••  ' 

late  agents  whom  Phipps  had  refused  to  accept  as  a  coun-  CHAPTER 

selor.     Among  those  most  active  in  this  opposition  were          ' 
several  Boston  men,  who  had  seats  as  representatives  for  1694. 
country  towns.     To  get  rid  of  these  opponents,  an  act 
was  introduced  and  passed  by  Phipps's  party,  requiring 
the  members  of  the  House  to  be  residents  of  the  towns 
they  represented — a  rule  ever  since  adhered  to,  though 
introduced  at  first  for  a  temporary  and  personal  object. 
Phipps  died  shortly  after  his  arrival  in  England,  before  1695. 
any  final  decision  had  been  made. 

Abandoning  his  ill-paid  office  of  chief  justice  of  New 
York,  Dudley  had  obtained  the  appointment  of  governor 
of  the  Isle  of  Wight,  in  England.  He  longed  to  return 
to  Massachusetts,  and  exerted  all  his  interest  to  be  ap- 
pointed governor  in  Phipps's  place.  He  met,  however, 
with  a  very  strong  opposition  from  Sir  William  Ashurst 
and  Constantino  Phipps,  agents  of  Massachusetts.  In 
order  to  damage  Dudley,  they  availed  themselves  of  their 
seats  in  Parliament  to  call  attention  to  the  affair  .of  ' 
Leisler's  trial.  Thus  supported,  Leisler's  son  succeeded* 
in  obtaining  a  parliamentary  reversal  of  his  father's  at- 
tainder. ', 

The  vacant  office  of  governor  of  Massachusetts  was 
bestowed  on  the  Earl  of  Bellamont,  an  Irish  nobleman1     . 
of  cordial  manners  and  liberal  politics.      But  his  depart- 
ure was  delayed,  and  the  administration  remained  for  sev- 
eral years  in  the  hands  of  Stoughton,  lieutenant  governor, 
and   chief  justice.      Btoughton's   conduct  in   the   witch 
trials  had  not  disgraced  him  with  a  community  of  whose         l    r 
terrors  and  prejudices  he  had  been  but  the  representative 
and  the  instrument.     His  known  friendship  for  Dudley 
was  a  much  more  serious  offense.      Yet  he  prudently       ;  , 
conciliated  Cooke  by  allowing  him  a  seat  in  the  council ; 
and  his  administration,  on  thg  whole,  was  quiet  and  easy. 


• 


, 

186  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES.     . 

CHAPTER       Two  additional  independent  companies  had  lately  been 
••.   '  •   sent  from?  England  for  the  defense  of  New  York,  mak- 

1694.  ing  five  in  all,  the  first  regular  English  troops  perma- 
nently stationed  in  America.      Little  attention  having 
been  paid  to  the  call  upon  the  other  colonies  <for  assist- 
ance to  New  York,  a  definite  quota  'was'now  assigned 
to  each  province  to  be  contributed  in  case  of  need. 

.  May.  ^Fletcher  strove,  on  a  second  visit  to  Philadelphia,  to 
overcome  the  scruples  of  the  Quaker  Assembly  by  assur- 
ing them  that  the  money  he  demanded  was  not  wanted 
for  warlike  purposes,  but  for  the  relief  of  the  Mohawks, 
teduced  to  great  distress  by  the  recent  invasion  from 
Canada.  Surely,  he  said,  you  will  not  refuse  "  to  feed 
the  hungry  and  clothe  the  naked !"  The  Quakers 
seemed  willing  to  put  up  with' this  explanation,  but  they 
insisted  that  the  money  should  be  disbursed  by  a  treas- 
^ire'r  of  their  own;  and,  as  this  did  not  meet  the  views 
or  accord  with  the  instructions  of  Fletcher,  the  proposed 
grant  fell  to  the  ground. 

The  suspicions  against  Penn  soon  dying  away,  the  ad- 

Aug.     ministration  of  his  province  was  restored  to  him.    But  the 

pressure  of  his  private  affairs^ — for  he  was  very  much  in 

debt- — detained  him  in  England,  and  he  sent  a'commis- 

1695.  sion  to  Markharn  to  act  as  his  deputy.     An  Assembly 
Sept.     calied  by  Markham  refused  to  recognize  the  binding  force 

of  Penn's  frame  of  government,  which,  indeed,  had  been 

totally ,  disregarded  by  Fletcher.     To  the  restrictions  on 

•  their  authority  imposed  by  that  frame  they,  would  not 

1696.  submit.      A  second  Assembly  proved  equally  obstinate; 
Auo-     and,  as  the  only  means  of  obtaining  a  vote  of  the  money 

required  of  the  province  toward  the  defense  of  New 
York,  Markham  was  obliged  to  agree,  to  a  new  act^  of 
settlement, -securing  to  the  Assembly  the  right  of  origin- 
ating laws.  A  pow«r  of  disapproval  was  reserved,  how- 


CHURCHES  IN  NEW  YORK.  ,        j  g  f 

ever,  to   the  proprietary,  and  this   act   never   received  CHAPTER 
Penn's  sanction.  .  •' 

Massachusetts  excused  herself  from  the  quota  asked  1694. 
for  New  York,  alleging  the  heavy  expenses  in  whieh  she 
was  involved  for  the  defense  of  her  own  frontier  and  that 
of  New  Hampshire.      The  peace  of  Pemaquid,  with  the 
Eastern  tribes,"  .had  not  been  of  long  duration.--    Just 
about  the  time  of  Phipps's  departure,  those  Indians,  Jetf 
by  French  officers,   and  stimulated  by  the  missionary 
Thury,  renewed  the  war,  killing  or  carrying  off  near  a    July, 
hundred  of  the  inhabitants  of  Oyster  River,  a  village, 
now  Durham,  on  one  of  the  tributaries  of  the  Piscata- 
qua.      To  prevent  the  Five  Nations  from  making  peace   • 
with  the  French,  for  which  purpose  they  had  sent  mes- 
sengers to  Canada,  a  treaty  was  held  with  them  at  Al-  t  Aug: 
bany,  at  which  deputies  were  present  from  Massachu^ 
setts,  Connecticut,  New  York,  and  New  Jersey. 

After  much  urging,  Maryland  voted  a  small  sum  to-  1695.  ' 
ward  the  defense  of  New  York.  Virginia  also  voted  five 
hundred  pounds  ;  but,  upon  a  representation  of  utter  in-, 
ability,  was  unwillingly  excused  by  the  king  from  fur- 
ther grants.  The  military  establishment  maintained  by 
Virginia,  consisting  of  a  captain,  lieutenant,  eleven  ran- 
gers, and  two  Indians  at  the  head  of  eaeh  of  the  four 
rivers,  was  set  forth  as  an  intolerable  burden,  at  a  time 
when  Massachusetts  /never  had  less  than  five  hundred 
men  on  foot  for  the  protection  of  her  eastern  frontier. 

Professing  no  less  zeal  for  the  spiritual  than  for  the 
temporal  welfare  of  the  province,  Fletcher  had  prevailed, 
on  the  Assembly  of  New  York  to  pass  an  act  for  build-  1693.  • 
ing  a  church  in  the  city,  another  in  Richmond,  ,two  ih 
Westchester,  and  twa  in  Suffolk,  in  each  of  which  was 
to  be  settled  "a  good,  sufficient  Protestant  minister,"  on 
salaries  varying  from -£40  to  £100,  to  be  levied  by  tax 


188  -HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

'CHAPTER  on  the  inhabitants.  •  Trinity  Church,  in  the  city  xjf  New 
;  .  York,  was  one  of  tjiose  erected  under  this  act.  The 
1692.  council  had  inserted  an  amendment  into  the  bill,  giving 
the  appointment  of  the  ministers  to  the  governor ;  but 
the  House  struck  it  out,  much  to  Fletcher's  disgust. 
"You  take  it  upon- you,"  he  said  to  the  Assembly,  in 
his  speech  at  the /close  of  the  session,  "as  if  you  were 
dictators.  I  must  tell  you  it  seems  very  unmannerly. 
There  never  yet  was  an  amendment  desired  by  the  coun- 
cil but  what  was  rejected.  It  is  the  sign  of  a  stubborn  ill 
temper.  But,  gentlemen,  I  must  take  leave  to  tell  you, 
if  you  seem  to  understand  that  none  can  serve  without 
,your  collation  or  establishment,  you  are  far  mistaken; 
for  I;  h.ave  the  power  of  collating  or  suspending  any  min- 
ister in  my  government  by  their  majesties'  letters  patent ; 
and  while  I  stay  in  the  government,  I  will  take  care  that 
neither  heresy,  sedition,  schism,  n6r  rebellion  be  preached 
':/  among  you,  nor  vice  and  profanity  encouraged.  It  is 
my  endeavor  to  leac|  a  virtuous  and  pious  life  among 
you,  and  to  give  a  good  example ;  I  wish  you  all  to  do 
the  same." 

In  spite  of  this  claim  on  the  part  of  the  governor,  the 
next  Assembly,  on  a  petition  of  five,  church-wardens  and 
vestrymen  of  the   city  of  New  York,  expressed  their 
1695.  opinion  "  that  the  vestrymen  and  church- wardens  have 
power  to  call  a  dissenting  Protestant  minister,  and  that 
,  he  is  to  be  paid  as  the  act  directs."     It  happened,  how- 
ever,  through  official  influence  and  management,  that 
,  .    all  these  endowed  churches  passed  by  degrees  into  the 
hands  of  the  Episcopalians,  thus  constituting  a  partial 
religious  establishment.      The  Dutch. Reformed  Church, 
•    1696.  incorporated  by  act  of  Assembly,  still  acknowledged  ec- 
clesiastical dependence  on  the  Classis,  or  Presbytery  of 
Amsterdam,  with  which  it  continued  to  keep  up  a  cor- 


RELIGION  AND  MORALS   IN  NEW  YOR'K.         j.  g  9 

•  „  *  *  • 

respondence  down  even  to  the   time   of  the ..  American  CHAPTER 

75         i     *•  XXI: 

Revolution.  •  •  .       ._     •  •  •  

Of  the  conditipn  of  New  York  at  this  time,  ecclesiastic-  1695. 
al  and  moral,  we  have  quite  a  full  account,  addressed  "to  , 
the  Right  Reverend  Father  in  God,  Henry,  Lord  Bishop 
of  London,"  by  the  Reverend  John  Miller,  "near  three 
years- resident  in  the  province  as  chaplain  to  his  majes?  .-  . 
ty's  forces."  Besides  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church  and 
the  Episcopal  Chapel  in  the  fort,  there  were  in  the  city 
a  large  French  Protestant  congregation,  a  smaller  one  of 
Dutch  Lutherans,  and  a  Jewish  Synagogue ;  also  a  num- 
ber of  English  Dissenters  who  had  no  meeting  house. 
There  were  Dutch  Reformed  churches  at  Albany  and 
Kingston,  which  latter  town,  fortified  by  a  palisade,  was 
esteemed  the  third  "  place  of  strength"  in  the  colony.  On 
Long  Island  there  were  meeting  houses  in  almost  every 
town,  but  the  ministers  "such  as  only  call  themselves 
so,"  "pretended  ministers,"  many  of  whom  "  have  no 
orders  at  all,  but  set  up  for  themselves  of  their  own  head 
and  authority,  or,  if  they  have  orders,  are  Presbyterians 
or  Independents."  "All  these  have  no  other  encourage- 
ment for  the  pains  they  pretend  to  take  than  the  volun- 
tary contributions  of  the  people,  or,  at  best,  a  salary  by  - 
agreendent  and  subscription,  which  yet  they,  shall  not 
enjoy  except  they  take  more  care  to  please  the  humors 
and  delight  the  fancies  of  their  hearers  than  to  preach 
up  true  religion  and  a  Christian  life.  Hence  it  comes 
to  pass  that  the  people  live  very  loosely,  and  they  them- 
selves very  poorly  at  best,  if  they  are  not  forced  for  very 
necessity,  and  by  the  malice  of  some  of  their  hearers,  to 
forsake  their  congregations.  Besides,  being  of  different '  ' 
persuasions,  and  striving  to  settle  their  own  sentiments 
in  the  hearts  of  those  who  are  under  their  ministry,  they 
do  more  harm  in  distracting  and  dividing  the  people  than 


190          HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

; 

CHAPTER  good  in  amending  their  lives  and  conversations.",     Even 
.  with  his  own  brethren  of  the  Church '  of  England  the 

1695.  Reverend  John  Miller  has  much  fault  to  find.  r<  They 
have  been  here,  and  are  in  other  provinces,  many  of  them, 
such'  as  being  of  a  vicious  life  and  conversation,  have 
played  so  many  vile  pranks,  and  sh6wn  such  an  ill  light, 
as  have  been  very  prejudicial  to  religion  in  general,  and 
the  Church  of  England  in  particular."  This,  however, 
is  stated  to  apply  more  to  the  other  provinces  than  to 
New  Yprk,  where,  besides  the- chaplain,  there  had  seldom 
been  any  other  Episcopal  clergyman.  Our  author  also 
complains  "  of  the  great  negligence  of  divine  things  that 
is- generajly  found  in  most  people;  of  what  sect  or  party 
'soever  they  pretqnd  to  be,  their  eternal  interests  are  their 
least  concern.  When  they  have  opportunities  of  serving 
God,  they  care  not  for  making  use  thereof;  or  if  they 
/  .go  to. church,  'tis  but  too  often  put  of  curiosity  and  to 
1  find  out  faults  in  him  that  preaeheth  rather  than  to 
hear  their  own ;  or,  what  is  yet  worse,  to  slight  or  deride 
where  tney  should  be  serious."  "Though  there  are  very 

,  few  of  any  sect  who  are  either  real  or  intelligent,  yet 

several  of  the  partisans  of  each  sort  have  every  one  such 
a;  desire  of  being  uppermost,  and  increasing  the  number 
o£-  their  own  party,  that  they  not  only  thereby  make 
themselves  unhappy  by  destroying  .true  piety,  and  set- 
ting up  (.instead  thereof  a  fond  heat  and  blind  zeal  for, 
they  know/  not  what,  but  also  industriously,  obstruct  the 
settlement' of. the  established  religion  of,  the  nation,  which 
alone  can  make  them  happy." 

"  In  a  soil  so  rank  as  this,  no  marvel  if  the  Evil  One 

find  a  ready,  entertainment  for  the  seed  Jie  is.  ready  to 

cast  in  ;  and  from  a  people  so1  inconstant  and  regardless 

of  heaven  and  holy  things,  no  wonder  if  (red  withdraw 

.his -grace,  and  give  them  up  a  prey  to  those  temptations 


RELIGldN  AND  MORALS  IN  NEW  YORK.    I  £l 

.  *  ' 

which  they  so  industriously  seek  to  embrace."      "''T  is 'CHAPTER 

in  this  .country. a  common  thing,  even 'for  the  meanest 

persons,  so  soon  as  ^the  bounty  of  God  has  furnished 'them  1695. 
with  a  plentiful  cropj  to  turn  what  they  earn,  as  soon  as 
may  be,  into  money,  and  that  money  into  drinkj  at  the 
same  time  when  their  family  at  home  have  nothing  but 
rags  to  protect  their  bodies  from  the  winter's  cold.  Nay, 
if  the  fruits  of  their  plantations  be  such  as  are  by  ttyeir 
own  immediate  labor  convertible  into  liquor,  such  as  ,ci-; 
der,  perry,  &c.;  they  have  scarce  the  patience  to  stay 
till  it  is  fit  for  drinking,  but,  inviting  their  pot  compan- 
ions, they  all  .of  them,  neglecting  whatever  work  they  are 
about,  set  to  it  together,  and  give  not  over  till  they  have 
drunk  it  off.  And  to  these  sottish .  engagements  they  ' 
will  make  nothing  to  ride  ten  or  twenty  miles,  and  at  the 
conclusion  of  one  debauch  another  generally  is  appointed* 
except  their  stock  of  liquor  fail  them.  Nor  are  the  mean 
and  country  people  only  guilty  of  this  vice,  but  they  .are 
^equaled,  nay,  surpassed,  by  many  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  whose  daily'  practice  is  to  frequent  the  taverns, 
and  to  carouse  and  game  their  night  employment.  This-  - 
course  is  the  ruin  'and  destruction  of  many  merchants, 
especially  those  of  the  younger  sor\fc,  who,  carrying  over 
with  them  a  stock,  whether  as  factors  or-  on  their  own 
account,  spend  even  to  prodigality,  till  they  find  them- 
selves bankrupts  ere  they  are  aware.  ^ 
"In  a 'town  where  this  course  of  life  is  led  by  many, 
'tis  no  wonder  if  there  be  other  vices  in  vogue,  because  .  ' 
they  are  the  natural  product  of  it,  such  as,  cursing  and 
swearing,  to  both  of  which  people  are  here  much  accus- 
tomed, some  doing  it  in  that  frequent,  horrible,  and  dread-  ' 
ful  manner  as  if  they  'prided  themselves  both-  as  torthe 
number  and  invention  of  them.  This,- joined  to  their 
profane,  atheistical,  and  scoffing  method  of  discourse, 


HISTORY    OF    THE  .UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  makes  their  company  extremely  uneasy  to  sober  and  re- 
•  .'' '  ligious  men."  "  There  are  many  couples  live  together 
.  without  ever  being  married  in  any  manner  of  way: 
many  of  whom,  after  they  have  lived  some  years  so, 
'quarrel,  and  thereupon  separating,  take  unto  -themselves, 
either  in  New  York  or  some  other  province,  new  com- 
panions." "  Those  who  in  earnest  do  intend  to  be  mar- 
ried are  in  so  much  haste,  that  commonly  enjoyment  pre- 
cedes the  marriage^  ante-nuptial  fornication,  where  mar- 
riage succeeds,  being  not  looked  upon  as  any  scandal  or 
sin  at  all."  .  "  There  is  no  sufficient  provision  for  the 
marrying  of  people  in  this  province,  the  most  that  are 
married  here  being  married  by  justices  of  the  peace,  for 
which  there  neither  is,  nor  can  be  in  New  York,  any 
law.  On  this  account,  many r  looking  upon  it  as  no  mar- 
riage at  all,  and  being  easily  induced  to  think  it  so  where 
they  find  themselves  pinched  by  the  contract,  think  it  no 
great  matter  to  divorce  themselves,  as  they  term  it,  and 
marry  to  others  where  they  can  best,  and  according  to 
their  own  liking." 

It  may  be  observed,  in  connection  with  these  strict- 
ures, that  although  the  pious  Fletcher  procured  an  act 
prohibiting  .the  profanation  of  the  Lord's  day  by  travel- 
ing, labor,  fishing^  hunting,  horse-racing,  or  frequenting 
tippling  houses,  under  a  penalty  of  six  shillings,  and 
though  a  like  penalty  was  also  imposed  upon  dr  unken- 
nels, no  laws  inflicting  punishments  upon  adultery  and 
fornication,  like  those  in  the  codes  of  New  England, 
Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and  Virginia,  are  to  be  found 
among  the  New  York  colonial  statutes.  - 

•  "  The  great,  most  proper,"  and,  as  the  Reverend  John 
Miller  conceives,  "  effectual-'  remedy  for  all  these  disor- 
ders is  "  to  send  over  a  bishop  to  the  province  of  New 
York,"  "  duly  qualified,  commissioned,  and  empowered 


.PROGRESS  OF  THE  -WAR* 
as  suffragan  to  my  Lord  of  London,"  to  take  with  him  a  CHAPTER 

XXI 

small  force  for  the  subduing  of  Canada,  "  and  five  or  six  __L_ 
sober  young  ministers,  with  Bibles  and  Prayer-Books ;"  1695. 
New  York,  New  Jersey,  Connecticut,  and  Rhode  Island 
to  be  united  into  one  province,  and  the  bishop  to  be  ap- 
pointed governor,  on  a  salary  of  ^£1500  ;  his  majesty  also 
to  give  him  "  the  farm  in  New  York,  commonly  called 
the  King's  Farm,  as  a  seat  for  himself  and  his  successors." 

So  far  as  the  English  were  concerned,  the  concluding 
operations  of  the  war  in  America  were  but  feeble.  Able 
with  difficulty  to  hold  his  own  in  Europe,  William  could 
bestow  but  little  attention  on  this  distant  quarter.  It 
was  quite  out  of  his  power  to  grant  the  aid  of  a  thou- 
sand regular  troops,  which  an  agent  was  sent  from  New 
York  to  request.  We  have  already  seen  the  little  suc- 
cess of  the  demand  of  quotas  from  the  other  colonies. 

The  French  were  more  active.     Fort  Frontenac  was 
reoccupied,  and  regular  communications,  interrupted  for 
several  years,  were  re-established  with  the  posts  on  the 
upper  lakes.      With  eight  hundred  soldiers  and  a  large  1696. 
body  of  auxiliary  Indians  the  French  governor  made  a    July: 
destructive  foray  into  the  country  of  the  Oneidas  and 
Onondagos,  burning  their  villages  on  the  banks  of  the 
Oswego,  and  destroying  their  corn.      By  these  vigorous 
measures,  those  inveterate  enemies  were  driven,  at  last, 
to  sue  for  peace. 

What  a  proof  of  the  leveling  influences  of  war,  what 
a  disgrace  to  the  French-  officers,  that  they  should  have 
suffered  a  decrepit  prisoner  a  hundred  years  old  to  be 
tortured  to  death  by  their  Indian  allies.  "  It  was  in- 
deed," says  Charievoix,  "  a  most  singular  spectacle  to 
see  upward  of  four  hundred  tormentors  raging  about  a 
decrepit  old  man,  from  whom,  by  all  their  tortures,  they 
could  not  extract  a  single  groan,  and  who,  as  long  as  he 
II.— N 


194  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

'  '  ' 
CHAPTER  lived,  did  not  cease  to  reproach  them  with  being  slaves 
of  the  French,  of  whom  he  affected  to  speak  with  the 

1696.  utmost    disdain.      When   some   one,   through   compas- 
sion, or  perhaps  anger,  gave  him  three  sword-thrusts  to 
finish  him,  « Better  not  shorten  my  life,'  he  said ;   « bet- 
ter improve  this  opportunity  to  learn  how  to  die  like  a 
man !'  '*  . 

,  While  Frontenac  carried  on  these  operations  in  the 
west,  D'Ibberville,  a  native  of  Canada,  who  had  already 
distinguished  himself  by  his  exploits  on  Hudson  Bay, 
arrived  from  France  with  two  ships  and  a  few  troops. 
Being  joined  at  St.  John's  and  Penobscot  by  a  party  of 
Eastern  Indians  under  Villebon  and  the  Baron  St.  Castin, 
Atig.  17.  he  laid  siege  to  and  took  the  Massachusetts  fort  at  Pem- 
aquid.  Proceeding  to  Newfoundland,  he  took  the  fort 
of  St.  John's,  and  several  other  English  posts  in  that  isl- 
and. After  wintering  at  Plaisance,  he  sailed  the  next 

1697.  spring  for  Hudson  Bay,  where  he  recovered  a  fort  which 
the  English  had  taken,  and  captured  two  English  vessels. 

The  capture  of  the  Pemaquid  fort  resulted  in  the 
breaking  up  and  complete  ruin  of  the  ancient  settlements 
1696.  in  that  neighborhood.  The  veteran  Church  retorted  by 
a  foray  up  the  Bay  of  Fundy ;  indeed,  Ibberville's  ves- 
sels did  but  just  escape  his  squadron.  He  burned  the 
houses  of  the  French  settlers  at  Beau  Bassin,  the  west- 
ernmost recess  of  that  bay,  and  destroyed  their  cattle, 
which  constituted  their  chief  wealth;  but  his  attempt 
to  dislodge  Villebon  from  St.  John's  proved  a  failure. 

The  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  complained  loud- 
ly that  the  whole  burden  of  the  defense  of  New  England 
rested  upon  them,  and  petitioned  the  king  that  New 
Hampshire,  Rhode  Island,  and  Connecticut,  might  be 
compelled  to  render  reasonable  assistance.  John  Easton, 
chosen  governor  of  Rhode  Island  in  1690,  had  been  sue- 


CONCLUSION  OF  THE  WAR:  195 

ceeded  in  1695  by  Caleb  Carr.  but  the  next  year  Walter  CHAPTER 

XXI. 

Clarke  was  re-elected.    Robert  Treat,  re-chosen  governor  _____ 
of  Connecticut  after  the  resumption  of  the  charter,  con-  1696. 
tinued  to  hold  office  till  1696,  when  he  was  succeeded 
by  Fitz-John  Winthrop. 

During  the  winter  parties  of  Indians  attacked  Ando-  1697. 
ver  and  Haverhill,  then  frontier  towns,  though  within 
twenty-five  miles  of  Boston.  The  heroism  of  Hannah 
Dustin,  one  of  those  taken  captive  at  Haverhill,  made  her 
famous  throughout  the  colonies.  Only  a  week  before 
her  capture  she  had  become  a  mother ;  but  the  infant 
proving  troublesome,  the  Indians  soon  dashed  out  its 
brains  against  a  tree.  When  so  far  clear  of  the  settle- 
ments as  to  be  safe  from  pursuit,  as  their  custom  was, 
they  separated  into  small  parties,  the  easier  to  find  pro- 
visions on  their  way  back  to  Canada.  In  the  division  of 
the  prisoners,  Hannah  Dustin,  with  her  nurse,  was  as- 
signed to  an  Indian  family  of  two  men,  three  women, 
and  seven  children,  besides  a  white  boy,  taken  prisoner 
many  months  before.  While  still  on  their  journey,  and 
now  upward  of  a  hundred  miles  from  Haverhill,  stimu- 
lated by  the  terrible  stories  which  the  Indians  amused 
themselves  with  telling  her  of  the  tortures  she  would  be 
exposed  to  in  running  the  gauntlet — a  ceremony  which 
they  represented  as  indispensable — this  energetic  woman, 
having  first  prevailed  on  the  nurse  and  boy  to  join  her, 
rose  in  the  night,  waked  her  confederates,  and,  with 
their  assistance,  killed  all  the  Indians  with  their  own 
hatchets  except  two  of  the  youngest,  took  their  scalps, 
and  then,  retracing  the  long  journey  through  the  woods, 
found  the  way  back  to  Haverhill.  In  such  scenes  were 
the  women  of  those  times  called  on  to  act!  mc&p^itMf 
The  last  year  of  the  war  was  particularly  distressing. 
After  suffering  from  a  winter  uncommonly  severe,  and  a 


196  HISTORY  OF  THE  U.NITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  scarcity  'of  provisions,  amounting  almost  to  a  famine, 

New  England  was  kept  in  great  alarm  for  nearly  six 

1697.  months  in  apprehension  of  an  attack  from  Canada,  to  be 
aided  by  a  fleet  from  France.  The  militia  were  called 
in  for  the  "defense  of  Boston,  thought  to  be  the  chief  ob- 
ject of  the  enemy.  But  the  French  fleet  stopped  short 
a,t  Newfoundland,  arrested  by  the  lateness  of  the  season. 
The  French  troops  from  Canada,  assembled  on  the  coast 
of  Acadie,  returned  to  Quebec  without  attempting  an 
attack. 

The  peace  of  Ryswick,  proclaimed  at  Boston  toward 
Dec.     the  end  of  the  year,  put  an  end  to  this  miserable  war. 
Its  operations  in  Europe  had  cost  the  English  nation 
a  hundred  and  fifty  minions  of  dollars,  £30,000,000,  in 
taxes,  besides  another  hundred  millions,  £20,000,000, 
in  loanfe — the  commencement  of  the  English  national 
debt.      By  the  terms  of  the  treaty,  each  party  was  to 
enjoy  the  territories  in  America  possessed  before  the  war. 
Provision  was  made  for  the  appointment  of  commission- 
ers to  agree  upon  a  definitive  settlement  of  boundaries  ; 
but  nothing  of  the  sort  seems  to  have  been  done. 
1699.       Peace  thus  established  with  the  French,  a  treaty  was 
presently  made  by  Massachusetts  with  the  Eastern  In- 
dians ;  not,  however,  till  New  England  had  endured  an- 
"other  fright  from  a  rumored  Indian  plot  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  whites.      Whence  this  rumor  came  nobody 
knew ;  the  Indians  were,  at  the  same  time,  frightened 
by  a  corresponding  rumor  of  a  plot  by  the  whites  for 
their  destruction.     In  the  course  of  the  war  many  of  the 
eastern  towns  had  been  broken  up,  and  the  settlements 
of  that  region  had  received  a  check  from  which  they  did 
not  recover  for  many  years. 

Repeated  complaints  by  the  English  merchants  of  co- 
lonial violations  of  the  acts  of  trade,  for  Which  the  war 


' 


BOARD  OF  TRADE: 


197 


had  furnished  facilities  and  encouragements,  and  espe-  CHAPTER 
cially  of  a  direct  intercourse  carried  on  with  Scotland  _  1_ 
and  Ireland,  regarded   commercially,   at  that  time,  as  1696. 
foreign  countries,  had  led,  just  before  the  treaty  of  Rys- 
wick,  to  the  establishment  of  the  BOARD  OF  TRADE  .ANI*  , 
PLANTATIONS.     This  was  a  permanent  commission,  con- 
sisting of  a  president  and  seven  members,  known   as 
"  Lords  of  Trade,"  who  succeeded  to  the  authority  and 
oversight  hitherto  exercised  by  plantation  committees  of 
the  Privy  Council.      Subsequently  the  powers   of  this 
board  were  somewhat  curtailed,  but  down  to  the  period 
of  the  American  Revolution  it  continued  to  exercise  a 
general  oversight  of  the  colonies,  watching  the  Assem- 
blies with  a  jealous  eye,  struggling  hard  to  uphold  the 
prerogatives  of  the  king  and  the  authority  of  Parlia- 
ment,  laboring   to   strengthen   the  hands   of  the   royal 
governors,  and  systematically  to  carry  out  the  policy  of 
rendering  America  completely  subservient  to  the  narrow 
views  which  then  prevailed  of  the  commercial  interests 
of  the  mother  country. 

By  a  cotemporaneous  act  of  Parliament,  the  various 
statutes  for  carrying  the  acts  of  trade  into  effect  were 
consolidated,  and  new  and  more  stringent  provisions  were 
added.  Any  direct  trade  between  Ireland  and  the  colo- 
nies was  totally  prohibited,  that  country  being  put,  in 
this  respect,  in  a  worse  position  than  any  in  the  world.- 
The  pretense  was,  that  if  trade  of  any  sort  were  allowed, 
it  would  be  made  a  cover  for  smuggling  "  enumerated 
articles."  An  oath  to  enforce  the  acts  of  trade  was  im- 
posed upon  the  governors  of  the  chartered  colonies  ;  their 
appointment  also  was  made  subject  to  the  royal  approv- 
al. All  colonial  statutes  or  usages  in  conflict  with  acts 
of  trade,  past  or  future,  were  declared  void.  The  same 
powers  were  conferred  on  the  king's  revenue  officers  in 


HISTORY   OF   tHE  UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  colonies  which  the  like  officers  possessed  in  England. 

The  number  of  these  officers  was  increased,  and  at  their 

1696.  head  was  placed  a  surveyor  general,  an  office  bestowed 
on  the  active  and  persevering  Randolph,  so  conspicuous 
formerly  in  the  history  of  Massachusetts. 
.  s  The  Board  of  Trade,  in  which  body  the  famous  Locke 
had  a  seat,  shortly  after  their  appointment  took  into  con- 
sideration the  repeated  calls  of  New  York  and  Massa- 
chusetts for  some  system  of  co-operation,  by  which  all 
the  colonies  might  be  made  to  contribute  their  proportion 
toward  the  common  defense.  They  suggested  a  captain 
general  for  the  colonies,  to  be  appointed  by  the  king, 
with  power  to  call  out  and  command  the  colonial  militia  ; 
but  such  a  military  dictatorship,  alluded  to  in  a  former 
quotation  from  Chalmers,  would  never  have  been  relished 
in  America.  Penn  proposed,  as  a  counter  project,  a  co- 
lonial Congress  of  twenty  members,  to  be  chosen  annual- 
ly by  the  Assemblies,  with  a  president  to  be  named  by 
the  king,  to  be  empowered,  during  war,  to  provide  for 
the  common  defense,  and  in  peace  to  regulate  commerce 
and  adjust  colonial  disputes,  of  which  several  already  ex- 
isted, especially  on  the  subject  of  boundaries.  But  the 
peace  of  Ryswick  caused  these  plans  to  be  laid  aside. 
1697. '  As  a  further  security  for  the  enforcement  of  the  acts  of 
trade,  Courts  of  Vice  Admiralty  were  established  through- 
out the  colonies,  with  power  to  try  admiralty  and  reve- 
nue cases  without  a  jury — the  model  of  our  existing 
United  States  District  Courts.  A  very  strenuous  re- 
sistance was  made  to  these  Vice  Admiralty  Courts,  es- 
pecially in  the  chartered  colonies.  But,  after  hearing 
argument  upon  it,  the  doctrine  was  maintained  by  the 
Privy  Council  that  nothing  prevented  the  king  from  es- 
tablishing an  admiralty  jurisdiction  within  every  domin- 
ion of  the  crown,  chartered  or  not.  The  right  of  appeal 


PIRATES.  199 

\ 

from  the  colonial  courts  to  the  king  in  council  was  also  CHAPTER 

^  '  •  xxi 

sustained,  and  by  this  double  means  the  mother  country          ' 

acquired,  at  length,  a  judicial  control  over  the  colonies,  1697. 
and  with  it  a  power,  afterward  imitated  in  the  Federal 
Constitution,  of  bringing  her  authority  to  bear  not  alone 
upon  the  colonies  as  political  corporations,  but,  what  was 
much  more  effectual,  upon  the  colonists  as  individuals. 

The  administration  of  Fletcher  as  governor  of  New 
York  had  ceased  to  give  satisfaction  in  England.  He 
was  accused  of  winking  at  violations  of  the  acts  of  trade, 
and  of  favoring  the  pirates  who  still  frequented  the  Amer- 
ican harbors.  When  the  remonstrances  of  Spain  had  de- 
prived the  buccaneers  of  French  and  English  support,  a 
part  of  them  abandoned  the  seas,  purchased  slaves,  and 
commenced  sugar  plantations  in  Jamaica  and  at  the  west 
end  of  Haiti,  which,  after  the  decline  of  the  Spanish  set- 
tlements of  that  island,  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the 
buccaneers.  Such  was  the  origin  of  the  French  colony 
of  St.  Domingo,  which  became  now  a  thriving  settlement, 
But  many  of  the  more  daring  and  restless  of  these  pi- 
rates still  followed  their  old  business,  often  finding  a  wel- 
come in  the  colonial  harbors,  where  they  spent  their 
money  freely,  and  were  regarded  by  the  people,  and  even  • 
winked  at  by  the  authorities,  as  profitable  visitors.  Vir- 
ginia seems  to  have  been  the  only  colony  prompt  to  com- 
ply with  the  directions  from  the  mother  country  to  en- 
act laws  for  their  punishment  and  suppression. 

The  depredations  of  these  pirates  extended  even  to  the 
eastern  seas.  The  prizes  which  they  took  were  some- 
times very  valuable,  and  it  was  thought  that  great  wealth 
might  be  obtained  by  fitting  out  vessels  to  cruise  for  re- 
captures. A  company  for  that  purpose,  in  which  King 
William  was  himself  a  shareholder,  had  been  formed  in 
England,  and  a  vessel  fitted  out,  the  command  of  which 


200     Hf STORY  OJ  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  was  given  to  Captain  Kidd,  a  New  York  ship-master, 
.recommended  by  Livingston,  then  on  a  visit  to  England, 

1697,  and  himself  a  partner  in  the  company.     But.  Kidd  ran 
'  away  with  the  ship,  turned  pirate  himself,  and  commit- 
ted, great  depredations  in  the  eastern  seas.     Imputations 
were  freely  cast  upon  all  concerned  in  this  business. 

JKidd  was  supposed  to  be  lurking  somewhere  in  Amer- 
ica ;  it  was  deemed  important  to  arrest  him  ;  and,  besides 
'  the  commission  which  Bellamont  held  for  Massachusetts, 
another  was  given   to  him  as  governor  of  New  York. 

1698.  He  /arrived  there  not  long  after  the  peace,  specially  au- 
Apnl>    thorized  to  investigate  Fletcher's  conduct,  to  enforce  the 

acts  of  trade,  to  suppress  piracy,  and,  if  possible,  to  ar- 
rest Kidd,  a  matter  in  which  he  had  the  more  interest, 
as  being  himself  a  shareholder  in  the  company  above 
mentioned. 

As  a  member  of  the  parliamentary  committee  appoint- 
ed to  investigate  the  affair  of  Leisler's  trial  and  execution, 
Bellamont  had  taken  a  warm  interest  in  the  reversal  of 
the  attainder  of  that  unfortunate  chief.  On  arriving  at 
New  York,  he  was  thus  naturally  led  to  connect  himself 
with  the  .Leislerian  party,  and  the  more  so  as  they  were 
the  opponents  of  Fletcher,  whom  he  sent  home  under  ar- 
rest,. —The, bones  of  Leisler  and  .Milbourne  were  disin- 
terred, and,  after  lying  in  state  for  some  days,  were  re- 
buried  in  the  Dutch  church.  Bellamont  gave  the  Leis- 
lerians  a  majority  in  the  council;  and,  thus  supported, 
they  were  also  able  to  obtain  a  majority  in  the  new  As- 
sembly, of  which  one  of  the  first  fliCts  was  to  vote  an  in- 
demnity to^the  heirs  of  Leisler.  By  another  act,  sundry 
"extravagant  grants"  of  land  made  by  Sloughter  were 
declared  void.  It  was  provided  by  the  same  act  that  no 
governor  should  alienate  for  a  longer  term  than  his  own 
continuance  in  office,  the  King's  Farm,  the  King's  Gar- 


BELLAMONT  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  201 

den,  the  Swamp,  or  the/  Fresh  Water,  all  districts  now  CHAPTER 
covered  by  the  city  of  New  York.  

Under  authority  from  the  Board  of  Trade,  Bellamont  1698.- 
set  up  a  Court  of  Chancery,  according  to  the  scheme  pre- 
viously introduced  by  Effingham  into  Virginia,  the  gov- 
ernor himself  acting  as  judge.  This  court,  in  the  erec- 
tion of  which  the  Assembly  had  no  share,  became  sub- 
sequently an  object  of  jealousy.  But  for  the  present  all 
was  fair  weather.  The  new  Assembly  voted  a  revenue 
for  six  years,  placed,  as  before,  at  the  sole  disposal  of  the 
governor.  They  also  passed  the  required  laws  for  the 
suppression  of  piracy. 

After  remaining  about  a  year  at  New  York,  Bella-  1699. 
mont  went  to  Boston,  where  he  superseded  Stoughton, 
and  assumed  the  government.  Of  affable  address  and 
popular  manners,  he  took  the  direct  road  to  public  favor 
by  making  much  of  the  ministers  and  popular  leaders. 
He  went,  indeed,  to  the  Episcopal  Church  on  Sundays, 
but  was  a  constant  attendant,  also,  at  the  Boston  weekly 
lecture,  at  which  he  professed  to  receive  great  edification. 
Nor  was  his  rank  without  its  influence.  Under  the  old 
charter  the  governors  had  received  scarce  $400  per  an- 
num; and  not  much  more  had  been  granted  either  to 
Phipps  or  Stoughton.  In  fourteen  months  the  General 
Court  voted  Bellamont  near  $9000 — a  greater  rate  of 
compensation  than  any  other  governor  of  Massachusetts 
has  ever  received.  Bellamont  first  introduced  the  cus- 
tom of  formal  speeches  at  the  opening  of  the  General 
Court,  copies  of  which  were  delivered  to  the  two  houses,  „ 
and  afterward  printed. 

Neither  Usher,  the  lieutenant  governor  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, who  fled  to  Boston  in  alarm  for  his  life',  nor  his 
successor  Partridge,  who,  being  a  ship-carpenter,  had  the  1697. 
merit  of  introducing  into  that  .province  a  profitable  tim- 


202  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  her  trade  to  Portugal,  nor  the  proprietary  Allen,  who 

•  presently  himself  assumed  the  government,  were  any 

1698.  more  successful  than  Cranfield  and  Barefoote  had  former- 

1    ly  been  in  extorting  quit-rents  from  the  settlers  of  that 

sturdy  little  province.     Included  now  under  Bellarnont's 

commission,  New  Hampshire  continued  for  the  next  forty 

years  to   have  the   same   governors   as  Massachusetts, 

though  generally  a  lieutenant  governor  was  at  the  head 

of  the  administration. 

In  neither  province  was  Bellamont  fully  able  to  car- 
ry out  his  instructions.  The  General  Court  of  Massa- 
chusetts, pleading  poverty  "in  excuse,  declined  to  fortify 
Boston,  much  less  to  rebuild  the  fort  at  Pemaquid. 
They  would  not  take  any  measures  to  prevent  intrusions 
on  Indian  lands  at  the  eastward ;  many  members  of  the 
\  Legislature  were  themselves,  indeed,  interested  in  those 
intrusions.  As  to  passing  laws  for  enforcing  the  acts  of 
trade,  even  the  counselors  insisted  "  that  they  were  too 
much  cramped  in  their  liberties  already,  and  they  would 
be  great  fools  to  abridge,  by  a  law  of  their  own,  the  little 
that  was  left  them." 

Re-echoing  the  complaints  of  the  Boston  merchants, 
these  same  counselors  expressed  "  their  indignation"  at 
the  shackles  placed  by  Parliament  on  their  commerce, 
insisting  "  that  they  were  as  much  Englishmen  as  those 
in  England,  having  a  right  to  all  the  privileges  which 
the  people  of  England  enjoyed."  Atwood,  at  the  same 
time  chief  justice  of  New  York  and  Vice  Admiralty 
judge  for  the  northern  district,  involved  himself  in  a  per- 
sonal dispute  with  one  of  the  Boston  ministers,  who  ar- 
gued that  the  colonists  "  were  not  bound  in  conscience 
to  obey  the  laws  of  England,  having  no  representatives 
there  of  their  own  choosing" — an  old  doctrine  in  Massa- 
chusetts, overruled  for  the  present,  but  revived  and  ef- 


TRIAL  OF   PIRACIES.     /rftJR  203 

fectually  maintained  at  a  subsequent  period.      The  same  CHAPTER 

doctrine  was  current  in  all  the  charter  colonies,  espe- __ 

cially  in  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island.  The  "  prac-  1700. 
tices"  of  Rhode  Island  in  violation  of  the  acts  of  trade 
had  become  "  so  notorious,"  that  Bellamont  was  spe- 
cially authorized  to  investigate  the  matter.  Alarmed  at 
this  commission,  the  Rhode  Island  Assembly  passed  an 
act  "  for  enabling  the  governor  to  put  in  execution  the 
statutes  of  trade,"  and  another  "  for  putting  in  force  the 
laws  of  England  in  all  cases  where  no  particular  law  of 
this  colony  hath  provided  a  remedy."  Samuel  Cranston, 
chosen  governor  of  Rhode  Island  in  1698,  continued  to 
be  annually  re-elected  for  twenty-eight  years.  Connec-  ' 
ticut  also  took  warning,  and  offered  to  give  security  to 
obey  the  acts  of  trade. 

After  burying  a  considerable  amount  of  treasure  on 
the  east  end  of  Long  Island,  the  original  of  those  pirat- 
ical deposits  about  which  tradition  has  invented  so  many 
fables,  Kidd  burned  his  vessel,  and  had  the  hardihood  to 
appear  openly  at  Boston,  where  he  was  arrested,  and  sent 
to  England  for  trial.  As  the  Assemblies  of  New  En- 
gland hesitated  in  passing  the  required  statutes  for  the 
trial  of  piracies,  an  act  of  Parliament  denned  the  offense, 
and  authorized  the  king  to  appoint  commissioners  for 
the  trial  of  offenders,  "  notwithstanding  any  patents." 
Under  this  act  all  future  trials  for  piracy  were  had,  by 
courts  specially  organized  for  the  purpose,  and  many  pi- 
rates were  convicted  and  executed. 

Having  returned  to  New  York,  Bellamont's  zeal  for  1701. 
the  act  of  navigation  involved  him  in  warm  controversies 
with  the  merchants  there.  They  complained  of  his  con- 
duct to  the  Board  of  Trade,  and  presently  to  the  House 
of  Commons.  An  inquiry  was  ordered,  but  Bellamont's 
sudden  death  put  a  stop  to  the.  proceedings. 


204 


.HISTORY   OF    THE   UNITED    STATES. 


CHAPTER      As  -Nanfan,  lieutenant  governor  of  New  York,  hap- 

pened  to  be  absent,  a  violent  struggle  took  place  between 

1701.  the  two  factions  in  the  province  and  the  council  for  the 
temporary  administration  of  the  government.  One  par- 
ty claimed  it  for  the  council  jointly,  th6  other  for  the 
oldest  member  as  president.  The  assumption  of  office 
by  Nanfan  tended  but  little  to  allay  these  heats.  He, 
like  his  predecessor,  sided  warmly  with  the  Leislerians, 
and  the  new  Assembly  which  he  called  was  strongly  im- 
bued with  party  spirit.  Among  other  offices  held  by 
Livingston,  a  leader  of  the  anti-Leislerian  faction,  were 
those  of  collector  of  the  customs  and  receiver,  of  quit- 
rents.  The  Assembly  called  upon  him  for  an  account 
which  they  knew  he  could  not  render,  because  his  pa- 
pers were  in  the  hands  of  Lord  Bellamont's  widow,  of 
which  circumstance  advantage  was  taken  to  pronounce 
him  'a  defaulter,  to  expel  him  from  the  council,  and  to 
confiscate  his  property.  Bayard,  another  active  leader 
of  the  anti-Leislerian  party,  was  near  experiencing  a 
still  severer  fate.  Having  prepared,  under  the  form  of 
addresses  to  the  king  and  Parliament,  some  very  abusive 
accounts  of  Nanfan's  administration,  he  was  tried  for 
treason  by  a  special  commission  under  an  arbitrary 
statute,  the  passage  of  which,  in  Slough ter's  time,  he 
had  himself  been  active  in  procuring.  That  act,  the 
.  first  passed  by  Sloughter's  Assembly,  and  the  first  in 
the  new  series  of  New  York  statutes,  provided  "  that 
any  person  endeavoring  by  any  manner  of  way,  on  any 
pretence,  by  force  of  arms  Or  otherwise,  to  disturb  the 
peace,  good,  or  quiet  of  the  province,"  should  be  deemed 
a  rebel  and  traitor,  and  suffer  the  penalties  of  treason. 
Bayard  was  treated  with  great  harshness  by  Atwood, 
the  chief  -justice,  one  of  the  commissioners  for  trying 
him.  The  jury,  all  Dutchmen,  found  him  guilty  ;  but 


PENN  AGAIN  IN  AMERICA.    &W  £05 

the  arrival  of  Lord  Cornbury,  the. new  governor,  whose  CHAPTER 
aristocratic  instincts  threw  him  into  the  arms   of  the          '         . 
anti-Leislerian  party,  put  a  stop  to  these  violent  pro-  1702. 
ceedings.     Atwood  fled  the  province.     The  statute  under    May- , 
which  Bayard's  trial  took  place  was  presently  repealed 
by  special  order  of  Queen  Anne. 

The  same  charges  of  opposition  to  the  acts  of  trade 
and  connivance  at  piracy  which  had  occasioned  the  re- 
call of  Fletcher  from  New  York,  were  urged  also  against 
Pennsylvania — complaints  which  the  proprietary  was  re- 
peatedly called  upon  to  answer.  As  well  to  regulate 
these  matters  as  finally  to  settle  the  political  constitu- 
tion of  the  province,  after  a  fifteen  years'  absence,  Penn 
again  embarked  for  America,  taking  his  family  with  him,  1699. 
and  professing  an  intention  to  remain  there  for  life.  He 
was  agreeably  surprised  by  the  growth  of  the  province — 
a  growth  owing,  as  he  alleged,  "  not  to  unlawful  trade 
or  piracy,  but  to  honest  labor  and  sobriety. "  The  in- 
crease of  Philadelphia  was  especially  remarkable.  That 
city,  however,  at  the  time  of  his  arrival,  was  suffering 
severely  from  the  yellow  fever,  a  disorder  which  appeared 
about  the  same  time  in  New  York  and  Charleston,  and 
proved  very  fatal. 

Penn  called  an  Assembly,  which  readily  passed  such 
laws  as  he  desired  for  the  suppression  of  piracy  and  fl* 
legal  trade.  From  a  royal  requisition  made  the  next 
year  for  £350  toward  the, defense  of  New  York,  they  1700. 
begged  to  be  excused  ;  but  £2000  was  voted  toward 
the  sustentation  of  the  government.  The  Assembly  was 
ready  enough  to  pass  a  rigid  police  law  for  the  regula- 
tion and  punishment  of  negro  slaves,  but  Penn  was  de- 
feated in  his  philanthropic  efforts  to  secure  for  those 
slaves  the  rights  of  legal  marriage  ;  nor  could  he  suc- 
ceed in  obtaining  a  law  to  prevent  frauds  and  abuses  in 


206  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  Indian  trade.     That  evil  he  partially  remedied  by 
'     the  provisions  of  a  treaty  presently  held  with  the  Onon- 

1700.  dagos  and  their  tributaries  on  the  Susquehanna. 

Penn  found,  indeed,  in  his  relations  with  his  colonists, 
Whether  as  landlord  or  sovereign,  very  little  to  invite  his 
stay.  They  higgled  with  him  as  to  the  amount  of  land 
included  in  their  respective  surveys ;  and  a  resurvey  at 
his  expense,  as  it  disappointed  the  expectations  and  re- 
sulted to  the  disadvantage  of  the  tenants,  became  itself 
an  object  of  complaint.  The  more  recent  tenants  de- 
manded all  the  privileges  which,  by  special  contract,  had 
been  secured  to  the  first  settlers.  It  was  even  wished 
to  extinguish  the  quit-rents  altogether — a  measure  in 
itself  desirable,  but  one  to  which  Penn  would  by  no 
means  agree. 

In  settling  the  new  frame  of  government,  the  Dela- 
ware counties  demanded,  as  the  price  of  union,  security 
for  a  perpetual  equality  of  power ;  but  to  this  the  prov- 
ince would  not  consent.  Surrounded  by  difficulties,  Penn 

1701.  took  advantage  of  the  introduction  into  Parliament  of  a 
bill  for  abrogating  all  the  colonial  charters,  to  announce 
his  intended  return  to  England,  and  to  press  upon  his 
colonists  a  settlement  of  the  Constitution.    The  old  frame 
of  government,  obsolete  for  many  years,  was  now  form- 
ally surrendered.     In  the  new  one  granted  instead,  it 
"was  found  necessary  to  include  a  provision,  allowing  the 
Delaware  counties  the  option  of  a  separate  administra- 
tion.    The  "  Charter  of  Privileges,"  as  the  new  frame 
was  called,  henceforth,  so  long  as  the  proprietary  gov- 
^ejrnment  lasted,  the  fundamental  law  of  Pennsylvania 
and  Delaware,  vested  the  power  of  legislation  in  the  gov- 
ernor and  an  Assembly,  to  be  annually  chosen,  to  sit  on 
its  own  adjournments,  to  have  the  power  of  proposing 
bills,  and  "  all  the  other  powers  and  privileges  of  an  As- 


-CHARTER  OF  PRIVILEGES.       •>.  £07 

sembly,  according  to  the  rights  of  the  free-born  subjects  CHAPTER. 


of  England,  and  as  is  usual  in  any  of  the  king's  planta- 
tions in  America."  Thus  came  to  an  end  Penn's  spe-  1701. 
cial  scheme  of  legislation,  by  a  council  to  propose  and  an 
Assembly  to  ratify — a  scheme,  indeed,  which  had  failed 
from  the  beginning,  and  which  always  has  failed  wher- 
ever tried.  No  mention  was  made  in  the  Charter  of  Priv- 
ileges either  of  the  council  or  of  the  judiciary,  omissions 
which  afterward  gave  occasion  to  violent  disputes.  Sher- 
iffs and  coroners  were  to  be  appointed  by  the  governor 
out  of  a  double  nomination  to  be  made  by  the  counties. 
Liberty  of  conscience  was  specially  secured,  as  in  the 
former  frame.  The  qualification  of  voters,  as  presently 
fixed  by  an  act  of  the  Assembly,  was  a  freehold  of  fifty 
acres,  or  £50,  about  $166,  in  personal  property. 

A  new  charter  was  also  given  to  the  city  of  Phila- 
delphia. After  the  model  of  so  many  English  cities,  it 
vested  the  government  in  a  close  corporation,  the  first 
members  of  which  were  appointed  by  Penn,  with  a  per- 
petual power  in  themselves  to  fill  all  vacancies. 

On  his  departure  from  the  province,  which  he  was  not 
destined  to  visit  again,  Penn  left  the  management  of  his 
private  estates  to  James  Logan,  for  many  years,  as  co- 
lonial secretary  and  member  of  the  council,  the  zealous 
but  judicious  advocate  of  proprietary  rights  against  the 
encroaching  spirit  of  the  colonists.  Logan  also  had  the 
entire  management  of  Indian  affairs,  in  which  he  scru- 
pulously followed  the  peaceful  policy  of  Penn. 

The  proprietary  governments  of  the  two  Jerseys,  re- 
sumed after  the  downfall  of  James  II.,  had  presented  only 
a  succession  of  troubles  and  confusion.  The  proprieta- 
ries differed  among  themselves,  and  their  subjects  were 
by  no  means  very  prompt  to  obey.  Andrew  Hamilton  1692. 
was  appointed  governor  of  West  Jersey,  and  acknowl- 


XXI. 


208  HISTORY    OF  ^HE    UNITED    STATES. 

'    '  .  '  '  * 

CHAPTER  edged  as  such ;  .but,  from  the  influx  of  a  miscellaneous 

XXI.  i  ^  * 

_  population,  an  opposition  soon  arose  to  the  Quaker  gov- 
1700.  ernment.  In  East  Jersey  there  was  not  a  little  jealousy 
between  Scotch  and  English.  The  claim  of  New  York 
to  be  the  sole  port  of  entry,  a  claim  which  enabled  the 
Assembly  of  that  province  to  levy  a  duty  on  East  Jer- 
•  sey  exports,  was  even  countenanced  by  the  Board  of 
Trade.  It  wag  only  by  a  law-suit,  and  a  trial  in  West- 
minster Hall,  that  East  Jersey  obtained  a  separate  cus- 
tom-house. But  this  very  trial  disclosed  defects  in  the 
proprietary  title,  of  which  the  inhabitants  availed  them- 
selves to  set  the  government  at  defiance.  With  little 
thought  of  ultimate  consequences,  they  petitioned  earn- 
estly for  the  abrogation  of  the  proprietary  authority,  which 
they  seem  to  have  regarded  in  no  other  light  than  as  a 
contrivance  for  extorting  quit-rents. 

1696.  Having  given  up  the  government  of  Maryland  to  Na- 
thaniel Blackstone,  Nicholson  soon  obtained  a  new  ap- 
pointment to  Virginia.  Governor  Andros  and  Commissa- 
ry Blair  could  not  agree.  The  governor  twice  suspended 
Blair  from  the  council ;  but  his  interest  in  England  prov- 
ed the  more  powerful,  and  Andros  was  removed.  The 
1698.  accession  of  the  busy  Nicholson  was  signalized  by  an  act 
Dec-  to  build  a  new  city,  to  supply  the  place  of  the  ruined 
Jamestown,  and  to  erect  there  a  "  Capitol"  for  the  con- 
venient sitting  and  holding  of  the  general  assemblies  and 
courts.  The  college  had  been  already  erected  at  Middle 
Plantation,  and  as  that  place  had  "  been  found  by  con- 
stant experience  to  be  healthy  and  agreeable  to  the  con- 
stitutions of  the  inhabitants  of  this  his  majesty's  colony 
find  .dominion,  having  the  natural  advantage  of  a  serene 
and  temperate  air,  dry  and  champaign  land,  and  plenti- 
fully stored  with  wholesome  springs,  and  the  convenien- 
oy  of  two  navigable  and  pleasant  creeks  that  run  out  of 


. .  * 

< 

TOLERATION  IN  .VI'RGINIA.  209 

James  and  York  Rivers,  necessary  for 'the  supplying  the  CHAPTER 

place  .with  provisipns  and  other  things  of  necessity  ;"  it ___ 

was  therefore  enacted  that  two  hundred  and  twenty  acres  1698. 
be  taken  by  the  colony,  and  laid  out  in  half-acre  lots,  for 
a  town  to  be1  called  Williamsburg  ;•  the  lots  to  be  sold 
at  fifty  per  cent,  advance  on  the  cost,  with  a  condition 
for  the  speedy  erection  of  houses  thereon,  according  to  a 
certain  specified  plan.  The  new  city,  as  an  evidence  of 
the  loyalty  of  the  colony,  was  laid  out  in  the  form  of  a" 
W.  For  the  erection  of  the  "  Capitol,"  the  tax  on  liq- 
rior  was  continued,  and  a  new  tax  was  imposed— the  first 
of  the  kind  to  be  met  with  in  the  Virginia  statute-book 
— of  fifteen  shillings  per  head  on  all  servants  imported, 
"  not  born  in  England  or  Wales,"  and  twenty  shillings'  on 
"  every  negro  or  other  slave,"  to  be  paid  by  the  importer 
or.  importers.  Provision  was  also  made  at  the  same  ses- 
sion for  a  new  and  thorough  revisal  of  the  colonial  statutes. 
Another  statute,  the  commencement  of  religious  tol- 
eration in  Virginia — not  a  spontanepus  concession  on  the 
part  of  the  Virginians,  but  in  obedience  to  orders  from 
England' — extended  to  Dissenters  the  benefit  of  the  En- 
glish toleration  acts.  Due  care,  however,  was  taken  of 
the  interests  of  religion,  by  denouncing,  in  this  Very  act, 
disqualification  for  any  office,  disability  to  sue  or,  to  pros- 
ecute in  any  court,  or  to  act  as  executor  or  guardian,  and 
imprisonment  for  three  years,  as  the  penalties  for  deny- 
ing the  being  of  a  God,  or  the  Holy  Trinity,  or  asserting 
that,  there , are  more  gods  than  one,  or  denying  the  truth 
of  the  Christian  religion,  or  the  divine  authority  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments,  '  By  the  same  act — the. third  .- 
on  the  subject  since  the  accession  of  William— ^-cursing, 
swearing,  and'  drunkenness  were  subjected  to  a  penalty 
of  five  shillings  or  ten  lashes ;  and  non-attendance  upon 
church  once  in  two  months,  except  for  reasonable  cause,. 
II.— O 

'•'•'. 


210  "HISTORY  'OF    THE   UNITED'  STATES. 

CHAPTER  to  a  penalty  of  five  shillings,  provided,  however  (this  was 

_  the  concession  to 'the  Dissenters ).,  -that  persons  qualified 

1698.  according  to  the  tenor  of  the  English  toleration  acts,  and 
attending -as  often  as  once  in  two  months  at  some  duly 
licensed  dissenting  chapel,  should  be  discharged  from  this 
penalty.  The  want  of  a  similar  provision  in  favor  of  Dis- 
17  00.  senters  caused  the  rejection  of 'a  third  act  for  legalizing 
the  Maryland  church  establishment,  obtained  by  Black- 
stone,  the  successor  of  Nipholson. 

Philip  Ludwell,  who  tad  carried  to  England  the  com- 
plaints of  his  fellow-colonists  of  Virginia  against  Effing- 
ham  shortly  after  the  accession  of  William  III.,  had  been 
appointed  by  the  proprietaries  of  Carolina  to  the  gpvern- 

1690.  ment  of  their  northern  province,  left  vacant  by  the  expul- 
sion of  Sothel.      That  usurper  having  been  at  last  com- 
pelled, by  threats  of  legal  proceedings,  to  retire  from  the 

1691.  southern  province,  that  too  was  placed  under  Lud  well's 
authority,-     But  the  riew  governor  found  himself  quite 
.unable  tos  reconcile  the  conflicting  wishes  of  the  colonists 
and  the  proprietaries.      Charleston  was  a  favorite  resort 
of  pirates ;  and  an  attempt  by  Ludwell  to  bring  a  crew  of 
them  to  justice  was  very  unpopular,  and  proved  unsuc- 
cessful."   ^mong  the  laws  enacted  in  Sothel's  time,  the 
whole  'bf  which  were  rejected  in  mass  by  the  proprietaries 

.  '  as  destitute  of  proper  legal  sanctions,  was  one  enfranchis- 
ing the  Huguenots.     But  the  increasing  number  of  these 
.foreigners  seems  to  have  excited  jealousy ;  and  now  that 
the  proprietaries  wished  a  similar  law  to  be  passed,  the 
colonists  refused.      Ludwell^  having  retired  in  disgust, 
1693.  Was' succeeded  in  Albernarle  by  Thomas  Harvey,  and  in 
the  southern  province  by  Thomas  Smith,  a  resident  in 
the  colony  arid  member  of  the  council.    At  the  same  time, 
to  conciliate  the  colonists,  and  to  get  rid  of  the  dispute 
which  .had  arisen  as  to  the  binding  force  of  the  •"  Grand. 


GRAND -MODEL  ABROGATED.  £  1  J 

Model,"  the  proprietors  voted  that,  uas;the  people  have  CHAPTER 
declared  they  would  rather  be  governed  by.  the  powers         .  '  ' 
granted  by  the  charter,  without  regard  t6  the  funda-  1693. 
mental  constitutions,  it  will  be  for  their  quiet,  and  the 
protection  of  the  well-disposed,  to  grant  their  request." 
This  abrogation  of  the  labors  of  Locke  removed  one  bone 
of  contention;  but  as  the  "  Grand  Model"  had  never 
been  actually  carried  into  effect,  the  government  went 
on  much  as  before.     Each  ofVthe  proprietaries  continued 
to  have  his  special  delegate  in  the  colony,  or  rather  two 
delegates,  one  for  South  Carolina,  the  other  for  Albemarley  . 
the  eight  together  constituting  the  council  in  either  prov^     N 
ince,  over  which  the  governor  presided  as  delegate -of  the  ' 
palatine,  to  whom  his  appointment  belonged. 

As  Smith,  during  Colleton's  time,  had  favored  the  proc- 
lamation of  martial  law,  he  found  his  estimable  private 
character  no  counterbalance  to  his  unpopular  politics. 
He  advised  the  proprietaries,  as  the  best  means  of  restor- 
ing harmony  and  order,  and  giving  respectability  to  the 
office  of  governor,  to  send  out  in  that  capacity  one  of  their 
own  number.  This  trust  was  accordingly  offered  to  the 
young  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  Locke's  pupil,  author  of  the 
"  Characteristics."  When  he  declined,  it  was  bestowed  , 
on  John  Archdale,  a  Quaker,  who  had  become -a  proprie-  « 
tary  by  purchase. 

Archdale  gave  the  Dissenters  a  majority  in  the  coun-  1695. 
cil,  which  seemed  but  reasonable,  as  they  constituted  a 
majority  of  the  population.     He  alsa  remitted  certain 
arrears  of  quit-rents — a  popular  act,  which  oost  but  little,     , 
as  it  was  difficult,  if  not  impossible',,  .to  collect  thern, 
He  strove  to  reconcile  the  jarring  tempers  and  interests 
of  Churchmen  and  Dissenters,  proprietaries  and  colonists, 
and  not  without  success.     Notwithstanding  his  Quaker    ' 
principles,,  he  procured  the  enactment  of  a  militia  law, 


2-12  'HISTORY  OF -THE  UNITED  STATES. 

/  .  • 

CHAPTER  with  power  to  himself,  however,  to  excuse  such  as  he 
should  judge  to  have  scruples  of  conscience  on  the  sub- 
1695.  jeot. 

The  first  intercolonial  war  did  not  touch  Carolina. 

;  The.  colonists  had  all  along  regarded  their  neighbors  of 

Florida  with  great  suspicion;  but  Spain  and  England 

were  now  allies,  and  Archdale  opened  a  friendly  com- 

.munication  with  the   authorities  of  St.  Augustine,  by 

ransoming  from  the  Yamassees  and  sending  back  four 

v  Catholic  Indian  prisoners,  an  act  of  humanity  soon  after 

reciprocated  by  the  Spanish  governor  in  the  ransom  of 

some  shipwrecked  English  mariners. 

The  Indians  about  Cape  Fear  were  exposed  to  con- 
stant inroads  from  the  neighboring  tribes,  who  sold  their 
prisoners  to  the  colonists  as  slaves.  Archdale  promised 
to  put  a  stop  to  these  kidnapping  expeditions ;  and  the 
Cape  Fear  Indians  agreed,  hi  their  turn,  no  longer  to 
-  plunder  the  vessels  shipwrecked  on  their  coast. 

Having  thus  set  things  in  order,  and  being  empowered 
'1696.  to  appoint  his  successor,  Archdale  selected  Joseph  Blake, 
.  whose  father,  a  brother  of  the  famous  admiral,  had  led, 
twenty  years  before,  a  colony  of  Dissenters  to  Carolina. 
The  new  governor,  who  presently  became  a  proprietary, 
was  also  a  Dissenter.  That  interest  was  strengthened 
by  a  party  of  emigrants'  from  Massachusetts,  who  es- 
1698.  tablished  a  settlement  twenty  miles  back  of  Charleston, 
called  Dorchester,  from  the  town  whence  they  came.  A 
Congregational  Church  was  also  gathered  in  Charleston 
by  John  Cottori,  son  of  the  "famous  Cotton,"  assistant 
editor  of  the  second  edition  of  Eliot's  Indian  Bible,  who 
migrated  thither  after  a  thirty  years'  settlement  at  Plym- 
outh. He  died  shortly  after  his  arrival,  but  the  church 
survived  him,  and  still  exists.  To  satisfy^  the  Church- 
men, Blake  consented  to  an  act  of  the  Assembly,  endow- 


' 


COLQ'NIAI/  TRADE. 


213 


ing  the  Episcopal  Church  at  Charleston  with  a  parson-  CHAPTER 
age  and  an  annual  stipend.      He  also  procured  an  act  en-          '  • 
franchising  the  Huguenots.     Carolina  at  length  seemed  1698. 
to  enjoy  some  internal  peace,  -i   . 

•A  bag  of  seed  rice,  accidentally  brought  to  Charleston 
by  a  vessel  from  Madagascar,  had  been  distributed  among      /  - 
the  planters.     Cultivated  at  first  more  for  curiosity  than 
use,  it  gradually  attracted  attention,  and  was  now  begin- 
ning to  be  looked  to  as  a  valuable  staple. 

North   Carolina,  under   Harvey   and  his   successors, 
Henderson  Walker  and  Robert  Daniel,  extended  itself  16,94. 
in  quiet.      A  pestilential  fever  had  recently  thinned  the  169*9. 
Indians  on  the  banks  of  the  Pamlico,  and  some  settle- 
ments began  now  to  be  established  there,  presently  in- 
cluded in  a  new  county  called  Rath. 

In  the  latter  years  of  William  III.  the  annual  exports     ;, 
df  the  colonies  to  England  amounted  to  about  £320,000, 
$1,500,000.      The  imports  were  nearly  the  same.      The 
traffic  with  Europe,  the  West  Indies,  the  Canaries,  and  ' 
the  Azores,  partly   illicit,  was  .estimated   at   about    an 
equal  amount.     The  u  plantation  duties"  collected  in  the 
colonies  were  sufficient  to  pay  the  expense  of  the  custom- 
house establishment,  and  to  leave  a  net  surplus  of  four 
of  five  thousand  dollars. 

Schemes  continued  to  be  indulged  in  America  for  the 
promotion  of  domestic  manufactures  ;  but  these  schemes, 
and  the  colonial  acts  of  Assembly  for  promoting  them,  ' 
were  regarded  in  England  with  great  jealousy.     Woolen 
cloths,  at  that  time,  were  the  chief  English  product  for 
exportation.     An  act  of  Parliament,  designed  to  favor  the  . 
English  manufacturer  and  to  cramp  this  business  in  the. 
colonies,  prohibited  the  transport  of  domestic  woolens  1699. 
from  one  colony  to  another,  or  the  export  of  colonial  wool 
or  cloths  to  any  foreign  country. 


214  mS.TOJlY    OF   THE    UNITED  STATES. 

V  '  ,  ,  ^ 

CHAPTER:      The  trade  to  Africa,  since  the  Restoration  a  monopoly 

XXL  \ 

;        in .  the  hands  of  the  Royal  African  Company,  was  at 

1698.  length  thrown  open  to  private  traders  upon  the  payment 
to  the  company  of  a  certain'  per  centage  toward  the  sup- 
port of  their  forts  and  factories  on  the  African  coast. 
Hitherto  the  transportation  of  African  slaves  to  America 
had  been  on  quite  a  limited  scale,  but  the  growing  de- 
mand in  Europe  for  colonial  products  soon  gave  to  this 
detestable  traffic  a<  new  impulse.  In  the  first  recorded 

1677.  case  (Butts  v.  Penny,  2  Lev.,  201;  3  Kib.,  785)  in 
which  the  question  of  property  in  negroes  appears  to  have 
••  ^.  ••  come  before  the  .English  courts,  it  was  held  "  that,  being 
usually  'bought  and  sold  among  merchants  as  merchan- 
dise, and  also  being  infidels,  there  might  be  a  property 
in  them  sufficient  to  maintain  trover."  This  doctrine, 
however,  as  to1  property  in  negroes,  under  the  chief  jus- 
ticeship of  the  celebrated  Holt,  was  repeatedly  overruled. 
Yet,  in  spite  of  Holt's  declarations  from  his  seat  in  the 

1697.  Court  of  King's  Bench,  that  "as  soon  as  a  negro  comes 
into  England  he  is  free"  (Smith  v.  Browne  and  Cooper, 

1702.  Salk.,  6,66;  Holt,  495);  that  "there  is  no  such  thing 
as  a  slave  by  the  law  of  England"  (Smith  v.  Gould, 

17Q4.  Salk./665  ;  2  Lord  Ray,  1274) ;  that  "men  may  be  the 
owners,  and  therefore  can  not  be  the  subject  of  property" 
(Ib.),  the  African  slave  trade  was  sustained  by  the  pub- 
lic •  sentiment  of  the  mother  country  as  well  as  of  the 
colonies,  and  though  never  expressly  legalized,  was  yet 
countenanced  and  cherished  by  Parliament  as  a  lucra- 
tive traffic. 

•  The  zeal,  already  noticed,  of  William's  colonial  gov- 
ernors on  behalf  of  the  Church  of  England,  originated 
'       quite  as  much  in  political  as  in  religious  motives.     Com- 
munity of  religion,  it  was  thought,  would  be  a  security 
for  political  obedience.     The  system  of  the  Church  of 


CHURCH   OF  EiNGLA,NlVlN  AMERICA.  2l5 

I  '  ( 

England  was  esteemed  monarchical,  while  Presbyterian-  CHAPTER 

XXI 

ism,  and  especially  Quakerism  and  Independency,  were          ''    J 
deemed  republican  in  their  character.  ,  In  4he  establish-  1701. 
ment  of  the  "  Society  for  Propagating  the  Gospel  in  >F or- ' 
eign  Parts,"  incorporated  by  act  of  Parliarnent,  and  still 
in  existence,  these  worldly  considerations  were  not"  with- 
out influence.      The  conversion  of  the  Indians  was  the 
nominal  o.bject  of  this  society,  but  its.  efforts  were  .chiefly 
exerted  for  extending  and  strengthening  the  Church  of 
England  in  America — an  object  regarded,  however,. with 
no  little  jealousy  in.  all  the  colonies,  Virginia  alone*  ex- 
cepted,  where  the  Dissenters  were. few  and  without  in- 
fluence.     One  of  the  first  missionaries  employed  by  this- 
society  was  Keith,  the  converted  Quaker,  who  traveled,  1702. 
preached,  and  disputed  from  one  end.  of  the  colonies  to 
the  other.  • 

Irritated  by  continued  opposition,  the  Board  of  Trade 
complained  to  the  king  that  the  chartered  colonies  "had 
not  in  general  complied  with  the  late  act  of  Parliament;"  1701. 
that  "they  not  only  assumed  the  power  of  making  by-      •; 
laws  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  England  and  destructive  ' 
to  trade,  but  refused  to  transmit  their  acts  or  to  allow 
appeals,  and  continued  to  be  the  retreats  of  pirates  and 
illegal  traders,  and  the  receptacle  .of  'contraband  mer- 
chandise."     They   were    also   charged  with   interfering 
with  English  commerce  by  lowering  the  value  of  coins, 
and,  "  contrary  to  the  true  intent  of  such  establishments," 
•  encouraging  "woolen  and  other  manufactures  proper  for 
England."     As  the  most  effectual  means  of  curing  these"  -.     . 
irregularities,  and  cutting  short  the  "  independency"  to 
which  the  chartered  colonies  pretended,  the  resumption 
of  the  charters  was  suggested,  and  the  introduction  of     . 
u  such  an  administration  of  government  as  shall  make 
them  duly  subservient  to  England."  ' 


%£Q  HISTORY    OF   THE  UNITED  STATES. 

'CHAPTER       To"  substantiate  these  charges,  a  great  mass  of  papers 

___! _  was  laid  before  Parliament,  and  a  bill  for  the  abrogation 

'  '  '  17fll.  of 'the  colonial  charters  was  brought  into  the  House  of 
•;liords,  .-This  was  the  bill  which  Penn  hastened  back  to 
England  to  oppose.  It -was  opposed  also  by  Sir  Henry 
Ashufst  on  behalf  of  Connecticut,  and  that  colony  was 
heard  by  counsel  against  it!  This  opposition,  with  a 
press,  of  other  business,  occasioned  the  bill  to  be  dropped. 
Yet- it  was  not  without  its  results.  Penn  presently  en- 
tered into -a  treaty  for  the  surrender  of  his  sovereignty. 
T*he  proprietors  of  the  Jerseys,  wearied  out  by  a  vain 
1702.  struggle'  with  the  settlers,  ceded  to  the  crown  those 
rights  of  jurisdiction,  which'  they  now  discovered  "  to 
have  long  been- a  very  expensive  feather."'  The  com- 
panies retained,  however,  their  property  in  the  soil,  their 
quit-rents,  so  obnoxious  to  the  settlers,  and  their  organ- 
1  ization,  which  still  exists,  along  with  the  ownership  of 
some  unsold  tracts  of  barren  soil — a  feeble,  last  surviving 
remnant  of  those  chartered  companies  by  which  the  whole 
territory  of  the  United  States  was  originally  claimed. 

It  may  be  doubted  how  far  the  inhabitants  of  New 
Jersey  had  any  reason  to  congratulate  themselves  on  the 
change".  ;  The  government,  as  well  as  that  of  New  York, 
was  .given  to  Edward  Hyde,  by  courtesy  Lord  Corn- 
bmry,  eldest  son  of  the  Earl  of  Clarendon,  glad  to  find, 
in  these  American  governments,  a  refuge  from  his'  En- 
glish creditors.  Under  the  system  established  by  the 
crown,  as  set  forth  in  Cornbury's  instructions,  'digested 
into  upward  of  a  hundred  article's-, ,  and  serving  as  a  sort 
of  constitution  for  the  province,  the  political  privileges 
guaranteed  by  the  proprietary  concessions  were  a  good 
•deal  curtailed.  The  council  for  the  reunited  province 
was  composed  of 'twelve  counselors,  appointed  by  the 
crown  from  a  list  of  names  supplied  by  the  governor. 


NEW  JERSEY  A  ROYAL  PROVINCE.'  /         2-17 

and  liable  to  be  suspended  at  his  pleasure ;  but  the  rea-  CHAPTER 

sons  of  this  suspension  must  be  transmitted  to  England/ 

These  counselors  were  to  be  men  of  "good  lives  and  1702. 
well  affected,"  "  of  good  estates  and  ability,"  and-*.'. not 
necessitous  people  or  much  in  debt."  The  Lower  House 
of  Assembly  consisted  of  twenty-four  delegates,  equally 
divided  between  East  and  West  Jersey,  required  to  pos- 
sess a  freehold  of  a  thousand  acres,  and  chosen  for  an  , 
indefinite  period.  A  bill  for  triennial  Parliaments  had 
lately  passed  in  England,  but  William  expressly  refused 
to  limit  the  term  of  the  New  Jersey  Assembly  to  three 
years.  The  right  of  suffrage  was  restricted  to  freehold- 
ers, or  those  possessed  of  personal  property  to  the  value 
of  ;£50,  $166,  the  same  qualification  adopted  in  Penn- 
sylvania. 

Liberty  of  conscience  was  secured  to  all  "except  pa- 
pists," and  to  Quakers  the  capacity  to  hold  office,  with 
the  substitute  of  affirmations  for  -oaths:  But  the  gov- 
ernor was  to  take  care  that  "  God  Almighty  be  devoutly 
and  duly  served,"  "  the  book  of  Common  Prayer  read 
each  Sunday  and  holy-day,  and  the  blessed  sacrament 
administered  according  to  the  rites  of  the  Church  of  En- 
gland." The  churches  already  built  were  to  be  main- 
tained ;  more  were  to  be  built ;  and,  besides  a  "  compe- 
tent maintenance,"  a  glebe  and  parsonage  were  to  be 
provided  for  each1  "  orthodox"  minister.  No  minister 
was  to  be  preferred  to  a  benefice  without  a  certificate 
from  the  Bishop  of  London  of  his  good  life,  and  conform- 
ity "  to  the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  Church  of  En- 
gland." But  the  intention  exhibited  in  these  instruc- 
tions to  force  the  Church  of  England  on  the  province 
was  defeated  by  the  Assembly's  steady  refusal  of  grants  -  ' 
for  any  such  purpose.  No  printing  press,  nor  the  print- 
ing of  any  book  or  pamphlet,  was  to  be  allowed  without 


21g  HISTORY   OF   THE    UtflTFl)    STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  governor's  "  special  license" — a  clause  contained  at 

J this  jtime,  and  for  years  afterward,  in  the  instructions  to 

17Q2,  all  the  royal  governors.      The  judicial  power,  under  an 
^ordinance  of  the  governor  .and  council,  based  on  these  in- 
structions, was  vested,  ill  cases  under  the  value  of  forty 
shillings,   $6   66,  in  justices  of  the  peace ;  in  county 
courts  of  Common-  Pleas  for  civil  cases  ;  in  General  Ses- 
sions of  the  -peace,  composed  of  all  the  justices  in  each 
Bounty,  for  criminal  cases ;  and  in  a  Supreme  Court  of 
%  three  judges,  with  an  appeal  to  the  governor  and  council, 

and  thence  to  the  Privy. Council  in  England — substan- 
tially the  same  system  in  force  in  all  the  Anglo-Ameri- 
can colonies.  •  The  governor  and  council  also  acted  as  a 
Court  of  Chancery  ^  but  that  power  was  presently  claimed 
by  the  governor  alone,  to  whom  belonged  also  the  pro- 
bate of  wills  and  the  granting  of  marriage  licenses. 

The  first  chief  justice  of  New  Jersey  was  Roger  Mom- 
pesson,  an  English -lawyer,  who  "  stepped  abroad  to  ease 
his  fortune  of  some  of  his  father's  debts," 'arid  who,  be- 

,      * 

sides  his  office  of  chief  justice  of  New.  Jersey.,  was  judge 
of  the  Admiralty  for  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Penn- 
sylvania, attorney  general  and  presently  chief  justice 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  also  chief  justice  of  New  York. 
Penn  recommended  him  ,'as  "  an  able  lawyer,  a  /good- 
tempered,  honest,  sober  gentleman."  Yet  he  proved  a 
mere  tool  in  Cornbury's  hands. 

Cornbury  hoped  to  increase  his  emoluments  by  obtain- 
ing, also,  Bellamont's  late  commissions  for  Massachu- 
setts and,  New  Hampshire ;  but  he  found  a  competitor  in 
Dudley.  That  persevering  office-seeker  had  recommend- 
ed himself  to  the  English  Dissenting  interest  by  his 
pious  deportment,  and  to  the  court  by  his  vote  in  Par- 
liament,-' in  which  body  he  had,  obtained  a  seat.  He 
overcame  King  William's  scruples  about  his  unpopular!- 


DUDlEY  GOVERNOR  OF,  M ASS ACH'USETTS.      £19 

ty  by  an  address  in  his  favor  from  the  chief  merchants  CHAPTER 

trading  to  New  England,  signed  also  by  some  Massa- : . 

chusetts  men  then  in  London.     He  even  had 'the  art  to  1702:. 
procure  a  recommendatory  letter  from  Cotton  Mather ; 
and,  much  to  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  people  of  the  prov- 
ince, he  succeeded,  by  these  means,  in  securing  an  ap- 
pointment long  the  object  of  his  ardent  ambition. 


• 


220  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED  STATES. 


*£*  I  >,*. 


.v.'..  =  CHAPTER    XXII. 

i  f  • 

$  .  •  *  •  •  .       •  .    '  •  *  '• 

SETTLEMENT  OF  LOUISIANA.   REIGN  OF  QUEEN  ANNE.    SEC- 
OND INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.     PIRACY  SUPPRESSED. 

(;HXXHF'R    *  ERY  sljor%  after  the  Peace  of  Ryswick,  the  French 
renewed  their  attempts,  interrupted  and  postponed  by  the 

1698.  late  war, "to  plant  a  colony  at  the  mouth  of  the  Missis- 
sippi^ to  which  they  were  the  more  invited  by  the  grow- 
mg  prosperity  of  their  settlements  on  the  west  end  of 
St.  Domingo.      The  Canadian,  D'Ibberville,  was  selected 
as  the  leader  of  this  enterprise,  lately  distinguished,  as 
we  have  seen,  by  his  exploits  on  the  shores  of  Hudson 
Bay  and  Newfoundland,  and  by  the  capture  of  Pemaquid. 
He  was  born  at  Quebec,  one -of  seven  sons,  all  men  9f 
ability  and  merit,  and  all  engaged  in  the  king's  service. 
Sauvolle  and  Bienville,  two  of  his  brothers,  were  joined 
with  him  in  this  enterprise ;  and  with  two  hundred  col- 
onists, mostly  disbanded  Canadian  soldiers,  two  frigates, 
and  two  tenders,  he  sailed  to  find  and  plant  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi,  which  never  yet  had  been  entered  from 
the  sea. 

Having  touched  and  recruited  at  St.  Domingo,  D'lb- 

1699.  berville  proceeded  on  his  voyage;  but,  on1  reaching  the 
Jan-     Bay  of  Pensacola,  he  found  his  entrance  prohibited  by  a 

1696.  fort  erected  there  by  Spanish  soldiers  from  Vera  Cruz, 
under  the  guns  of  which  two  Spanish  ships  lay  at  an- 
chor. The  Spaniards,  who  still  claimed  the  whole  cir- 
cuit of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  jealous  of  the  designs  of  the 
-French)  had  hastened  to  occupy  this,  the  best  harbor 
on  the  gulf;  and  the  barrier  thus  established  ultimately 


SETTLEMENT  OF   LOU-ISIANA.  221- 

determined  the  dividing  line  between  Florida  and  Loui-  CHAPTER 

,  xxii: 

siana.  ,      . .  . '     •'':•&'•  ' 

Proceeding  to  the  westward,  the  French  frigates  came  169-9. 
to  anchor  in  the  deep  water  near  the  group  of  Chandeleur. 
While  the  colonists  built  huts  on  Ship  Island,  D'lbber- 
ville  explored,  on  the  opposite  continent,  the  Bay  of  Bi- 
loxi  and  the  mouth  of  the  Pascagoula ;  and  presently, 
with  his. brother  Bienville,  forty-eight  men,  and  Atha- 
nase,  a  Franciscan  friar,  one  of  La  Salle's  companions 
in  his  voyage  down  the  Mississippi,  he  proceeded  to  search 
for  the  mouth  of  that  river.  Guided  by  the  muddy  wa- 
ters, these  explorers  presently  entered  the  obscure  outlet  Feb.  27. 
of  that  mighty  stream,  up  which  they  ascended  as  high 
as  Red  River,  encountering  several  parties  of  Indians, 
from  one  of  which  they  received  Tonti's  letter  to  La 
Salle,  written  fourteen  years  before — a  circumstance 
which  assured  them  they  had  found  the  Mississippi. 

Turning  again  down  the  river,  D'Ibberville,  with  part 
of  his  company,  presently  quitted  the  main  stream,  and 
by  the  Manshac  Pass,  an  outlet  from  the  left  bank,  and 
through  the  River  Amite  and  the  Lakes  Maurepas  and 
Pontchartrain,  so  named  from  two  of  Louis's  principal 
ministers,  he  made  his  way  back,  by  a  shorter  passage, 
to  ..Ship  Island. 

As  the  drowned  lands  of  the-  Lower  Mississippi  hardly 
seemed  to  invite  settlement,  the  flat  and  sandy  shores  of 
the  shallow  Bay  of  Biloxi  were  selected  as  the  site  for 
the  incipient  colony.  There,  within  the  limits  of  the, 
present  State  of.  Mississippi,  a  fort  was  built  and  huts  .May. 
erected.  The  colony  thus  planted,  D'Ibberville  return- 
ed to  France  for  supplies.  . 

The  Spanish  court  remonstrated  against  this  .settle- 
ment as  an  intrusion  upon  territory  which  they  claimed, 
the  transfer,  shortly  after fc  of  the  Spanish  throne  to 


222  H-ISTOHY  OF- THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  a  Bourbon  prince,  and  the  familyralliance  thus  establish- 
ed between  France  and  Spain,  prevented  any  very  seri- 
1699.-  ous  Apposition. 

It  was  rather  English  than  Spanish  rivalry  that  the 
French  had  to  dread.  The  -course  and  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi  had  become  known  in  Europe  through  the 
two  narratives  of  Father  Hennepin,  in  the  last  of  which, 
just  published  and  dedicated  to  King  William,  that  Flem- 
ish friar  set  up  a  claim  to  have  himself  anticipated  La 
Salle  in  descending  to  the  mouth  of  the  river.  Memoirs, 
.also,  of  La  Salle's.  explorations  had  been  published  at 
Paris  in  the  name  of  Tonti.  Compiled  from  imperfect 
materials  by  some  professional  author  at  Paris,  and  ascrib- 
ed to  Tonti,  according  to  the  French  usage,  with  design 
to  give  them  greater  currency,  that  one-armed  veteran  as- 
sured P'Ibberville,  in  an  interview  to  be  presently  men- 
tioned, that  he  was  not  responsible  for  the  many  fables 
they  contained.  Coxe,  a  London  physician,  already  in- 
terested in  America  as  a  large  proprietor  of  West  Jersey, 
had  purchased  up  the  old  patent  of  Carolana,  granted  to 
Sir  Robert  Heath  in  1630,  and,  under  that  patent,  with 
the  countenance  of  William,  had  put  forward  pretensions 
to  the  rnouth  of  the  Mississippi,  which  two  armed  En- 
glish vessels  had  been  sent  to  explore. 

Sauvolle,  left  as  governor  of  the  infant  colony  during 
t)'Ibberville's  absence,  made  treaties  with  the  neighbor- 
ing bands  of  Choctaws,  while  Bienville,  the  other  brother, 
still  prosecuted  the  work  of  exploration.  Entering  the 
Mississippi  through  the  Pass  Manshac,  he  left  it  by  the 
opposite  Bayou  of  Plaquemines,  which'  he.  examined  for 
a  considerable  distance.  Returning  again  to  the  river,  at 
a  reach  some  fifty  miles  from  the-mouth,  he  unexpectedly 
'encountered  one  of  Coxe's  vessels  coming  up.  But  this 
intruder  was  -easily  got  rid  of.  Assured  that1  this  was 


SETTLEMENT   OF  LOUISIANA*  223 

not  the  Mississippi,  but  a  dependency  of  Canada  already  CHAPTER 
occupied  by  the  French,  the  English  commander  turned 
aboirt  and  left  the  river;  and  this  reach  is  still  known  as.  1699. 
English  Turn.    •&% 

'These  vessels,  before  proceeding  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
had  landed  in  Carolina  a  body  of  French  Huguenot  em- 
igrants. A  French  surgeon  on  board  one  of  the.  ships 
proposed  to  Sauvolle,  on  behalf  of  his  associates  in  Cay- 
olina,'to  remove  to  Louisiana,  being  desirous  to  regain 
their  nationality,  if  they  could  be  guaranteed  the  free- 
dom of\  their  religion.  This  offer  was  transmitted  to  the 
mother  country,  but  the  reply  came  back  that  Louis 
had  not  expelled  the  Huguenots  from  France- in  order  to 
make  a  republic  of  them  in  America.  - 

D'Ibberville  returned  toward  the  end  of  the  year  with 
two  vessels  and  sixty  Canadians.  Determined  to  be  be- 
forehand with  the  English  in  occupying  the  river,  he  un- 
dertook a  new  expedition  to  find  a  proper  place  for  a  set-  1700. 
tlement.  Since  the  time  of  La  Salle,  missionaries  and  ar 
traders  from  Canada  had  descended  the  Mississippi,  and 
established  themselves  at  various  points  On  its  banks. 
Two  of  these  missionaries  had  already  visited  the  colo- 
ny at  Biloxi ;  and  while  D'Ibberville  was  employed  in 
building  a  fort,  about  fifty  miles  from  the  river's  mouth j 
where  the  bank  first  begins  to  rise  above  the 'annual  in- 
undation, he  was  joined  by  the  aged  Tonti,  the  old  as-  Feb. 
sociate  of  La  Salle,  who  had  descended  from  the  Illinois 
with  seven,  companions.  D'Ibberville  and  Tonti  ascend- 
ed together  a  distance  o£  some  -three  or  four  hundred 
miles,;  and  on  the  bluff  where  now  stands  the  city  of 
Natchez,  among  the  Indians-  of  that  name,  with  -whom 
St.  Come  had  lately  established  himself  as  a  missionary, 
D'Ibberville  marked  out  a  settlement  which  he  named 
Rosalie,  in  honor  of  the  Duchess  of  Pontchar  train.  But  . ' 


5  . 

224  HISTORY  OF.  THE  UN.ITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER- the  .feeble  and  starving  .state  of  the  colony  caused  these 
posts  to  be  soon  abandoned. 

1700.       While  D'Ibberville  returned  to  Biloxi,  and  thence  to 
May     France,  Bienville  ascended  the  Red  River  as  far  as  Natch- 
jtpches.      Stragglers  explored  the  country  to  the  west  in 
.  search  of  mines ;  but  nothing  was  to  be  found  save  in- 
undated forests  and  gloomy  solitudes.     Le  Sueur,  with 
twenty -men,  ascended  the  Mississippi  to  the  Falls  of  St. 
Anthony,  and,  entering  the  St.  Peter's,  reached  the  foot 
of  that:  great  swell  of  the  prairies  which  intervenes  be- 
tween that  river  and  the  Missouri. 
••  -If  the  swampy  banks  of  the  Lower  Mississippi  pre- 
sented little  inducement  to  settlers,  the  barren  sands  of 
Biloxi  were  hardly  more  inviting.     Nor  was  the  charac- 
ter of  the  emigrants  well  adapted  to  overcome  these  dif- 
ficulties.    For  the  most  part,  they  were  hirelings  or  mere 
adventurers,  without  the  impulse  of  any  steady  principle. 
The  rejected  Huguenots  would  have  made  better  settlers,, 
Sauvolle  soon  fell  a  victim  to  the  climate,  the  disorders 
of  which  swept  off  many  of  the  colonists.     When  D'lb- 

1702.  berville  came  the  third  time  from  France,  with  provisions 
and  soldiers,  the  inconvenience  of  Biloxi  had  become  man- 
ifest. Most  of  the  settlers  were  removed  to  Mobile,  near 
the  head  of  the  bay  of  that  name ;  and  this  first  Euro- 
pean settlement  within  the  limits  of  the  present  state  of 
Alabama  now  became,  and  remained  for  twenty  years, 
the  head-quarters  of  the  colony.  Some  settlers  were 
also  established  on, Dauphin  Island,  at  the  entrance  of 
the  bay.  That  island  had  a  good  harbor,  an  advantage 
which  Mobile  could  not  boast. 

The  soil  of  all  this  region  was  almost  as  barren  as  that 
about  Biloxi.  The  climate  was  unsuited  to  European 
grains.  As,  it  seemed  almost  useless . to  attempt  cultiva- 
tion, the  colonists  employed  themselves  in  trade  with  the 


FRENCH  CLAIMS   ON  TH£  NORTHEAST.         .225 

Indians,  in  fishing  or  hunting,  or  in  a  futile  search  for  CHAPTER 

pearls  and  mines.      The  wool  and  skins  of  the  buffalo '__ 

were  looked  forward  to  as^a  future  staple.  Though  res-  IT 02. 
cruits  repeatedly  arrived,  the  whole  number  of  colonists, 
at  any  one  time  during  the  next  ten  years,  never  exceed- 
ed two  hundred  ;  and  it  was  only  by  provisions  sent  from 
France  and  St.  Domingo  that  these  few  were  kept  from 
starving. 

While  a  foothold  at  the  southwest  was  thus  sought 
and  feebly  gained  by  the  French,  they  curtailed  nothing 
of  their  pretensions  at  the  east  and  north.      Villebon, 
still  stationed  at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  John's,  gave  notice  1698. 
to  the  authorities  of  Massachusetts,  immediately  after 
the  peace  of  Ryswick,  that  he  claimed  the  whole  coast,      •• 
with  an  exclusive  right  of  fishing,  as  far  as  Pemaquid. 

The  mission  among  the  Penobscots  was  still  kept  up. 
The  Norridgewocks,  or  Canabas,  as  the  French  called 
them,  built  a  church  at  their  principal  village  on  the  Upr 
per  Kennebec,  and  received  as  a  resident  missionary 
the  Jesuit  Sebastian  Rasles,  an  able  and  accomplished 
priest,  who  kept  that  tribe,  for  the  next  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury, warmly  attached  to  the  French.  In  the  treaty  of 
Ryswick,  the  English  had  made  no  provision  for  their  al- 
lies, the  Five  Nations.  In  making  arrangements-  with 
the  governor  of  Canada  for  exchange  of  prisoners,  Bella- 
mont  had  endeavored  to  obtain  an  acknowledgment  of 
English  supremacy  over  those  tribes,  and  the  employ- 
ment of  English  agency  in  negotiating  a  peace.  ,  But 
Callieres,  who  became  governor  general  after  Fronte-  16'99. 
nac's  death,  sent  messengers  of  his  own  to  the  Iroquois 
villages,  with  the  alternative  of  peace  or  an  exterminat- 
ing war,  against  which  the  English  could  now  afford' 
them  no  assistance.  Their  jealousy  was  also  excited  by 
a  claim  of  Bellamont  f o'  build  forts  in  their  territory  ;  and 
'  II.— P 


226  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 


CHAPTER  they  were  ,  presently  induced  to  send  commissioners  to 

_^  _  :_  Montreal,  where  a  grand  assembly  of  all  the  French  al- 

170if  lies  was  collected,  and,  with  many  formalities,  a  lasting 

,  Au£-     treaty  was  at  length  concluded.      But  of  the  Frenchmen 

•prisoners  among  the  Iroqu'ois,  quite  a  number  refused  to 

return  to  the  restraints  of  civilized  life. 

Free  passage  to-  the  west  thus  secured,  a  hundred  set- 
tlers, with  a  missionary  leader,  were  sent  td  take  posses- 
sion of  the  beautiful  strait  between  Lakes  Erie  and  St. 
Clair.  A  fort  was  built  ;  several  Indian  villages  found 
protection  in  its  neighborhood  ;  arid  Detroit  soon  became 
the  favorite  settlement  of  Western  Canada.  About  the 
missionary  stations  at  Kaska$kia  and  Cahokia,  on  the 
east  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  between  the  mouths  .of  the 
Ohio  and  the  Illinois,  villages  presently  grew  up  ;  and  if 
the  zeal  of  the  missionaries  cooled  by  degrees,  and  the 
idea  of  a  Jesuit  theocracy  gradually  faded  away,  ihat  of 
a  great  French  American  empire  began  gradually  to  be 
developed  in  its  place. 

These  territorial  pretensions  of  the  French  occasioned 
no  little  alarm  and  anxiety  in  Massachusetts  and  New 
York.  -  Eliot  had  left  no  successors  in  New  England, 
where  the  missionary  spirit  was  pretty  much  extinct. 
An  attempt,  indeed,  had  been  made  in  New  York  to 
supply  the  religious  wants  of  the  Mohawks,  and  so  to 
prevent  their  alliance  with  the  French,  i>y  the  appoint- 
ment of  Dellius,  of  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church,  as  a 
missionary  for  that  tribe.  "  But  his  proselytes,3'  says 
Charlevoix,  "  were  very  few,  and  he  did  not  seem  very 
anxious  to  augment  them."  "This,  indeed,"  he  adds, 
"  was  not  the  first  essay  of  the  sort,  which  ought  to 
convince  Messieurs  the  Reformed  that  their  sect  lack^ 
that  fecundity,  that  constant  and  laborious  zeal  for  the 
salvation  of  unbelievers,  the  .most  -obvious;  and  distin- 


SECOND  INTERCOLONIAL 'WAR.  227 

guishihg  mark  of  the  true  church  of  Christ.  '  It  is  in  CHAPTER 

.    .                                              '       xxn. 
vain  they  oppose  to  this  so  many  calumnies,  invented  by 

themselves,  to  obscure  the  apostleship  of  our  mission-  1701. 
aries.  Without  wishing  to  apologize  for  individual  fail- 
ings, of  which,  doubtless,  there  have  been  instances,  one 
must,  however,  be  willfully  blind  not  to  see  that  the  far 
greater  number  lead  a  life  truly  apostolic,  and  that  they 
have  established  churches  very  numerous  and  fervent— 
a  thing  of  which  no  sect  not  of  the  Romish  communion 
can  boast,"  Abhorrence  of  these  Catholic  missionaries 
is  sufficiently  evinced  by  acts  now  passed  in  Massachu-  f 
setts  and  New  York,  which  remained  in  force  down  to 
the  period  of  the  Revolution,  and  under  which  any  Jesuit 
or  popish  priest  coming  within  their  territories  was  to  be 
"  deemed  and  accounted  an  incendiary  and  disturber  o/ 
the  public  peace  and  safety,  and  an .  enemy  of  the  true 
Christian  religion,"  to  suffer  perpetual  imprisonment,  or 
death  if  an  escape  were  attempted.  Any  person  who 
should  knowingly  u  receive,  harbor,  conceal,  aid,  succor, 
or  relieve"  any  such  popish  priest,  besides  forfeiting 
d£200,  was  to  be  ^hree  times  set  in  the  pillory,  and 
obliged  to  give  securities  for  good  behavior. 

Violent  as  colonial  antipathies  were,  the  renewal  of  the 
war  in  America  was  occasioned  by  a  purely  European  .• 
quarrel — that  struggle  for  the  fragments  of  the  Spanish 
empire  which  followed  the  death  of  Charles  II.  without 
male  heirs.  Through  the  intrigues  and  bad  faith  of 
Louis  XIV.,  an  offshoot  of  the  Bourbon  family  occu- 
pied the  Spanish  throne  ;  and  to  him,  in  spite  of  English 
and  Austrian  interference,  the  Spanish  people  and  the 
Spanish  colonies  adhered.  In  this  war,  therefore,  the  • 
English  colonists  had  for  enemies  not  alone  the'  Frencfi 
in  Canada  and  Acadie,  but  the  Spaniards  of  Florida  also. 
The  victories  of  Marlborough  and  Peterborough,  the  ex- 


228     HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  *STArTES. 

CHAPTER  ploits  of  Prince 'Eugene  of  Savoy,  might  serve  in  Eu- 
..".  '•*  rnpft  to  gilfl  thft  horrors  of  this  bloody  struggle.  In 
17Q1.  America,  it.  offers  but  a  spectacle  of  mere  miseries. 

The  Spanish  settlements  about  St.  Augustine  re- 
mained still  very  inconsiderable.  Pensacola,  as  we  have 
seen,  had  but  lately  been  occupied.  In  \vhat  is  now 
known  as  Middle -Florida,  that  district  <  which  communi- 
cates with  the  Gulf  by  the  port  of  St.  Mark's,  Spanish 
.missionaries  had  introduced  the  rudiments  of  civilization ; 
and  the  Appalachees  had  become",  under  their  instruction 
adid  discipline,  herdsmen  and  farmers. 
«.'  Between  the  country  of  the  Appalachees  and  the  En- 
.  glish  settlements  in  South  Carolina  roamed  the  powerful 
confederacy  of  the  Muscogees,  or  Creeks,  who  occupied 
a, great  tract  of  territory  southwest  and  south  of  the  Sa- 
vannah and  the  Alleganies,  including  the  whole  of  the 
present  state  of  Georgia  and  the  greater  part  of  Alabama. 
This  confederacy,  divided  into  the  Upper  and  the  Lower 
Creeks,  could  muster  five  or  six  thousand  fighting  men. 
.  The  southwestern  •  portion  of  the  Allegany  chain  was 
occupied  by  the  not  less  numerous*  confederacy  of  the 
Cherokees,  ancient  inhabitants  of  those  beautiful  valleys 
watered  by  the  tributaries  of  the  Upper  Tennessee,  but 
claiming  also  as  their  hunting  grounds  the  whole  region 
as  far  north  as  the  Kenhawa  and  the  Ohio. 

Between  the  Cherokees  and  the  English  settlements 

of  the  two  Carolinas  were  the  Yamassees  along  the  north 

bank  of  the  Savannah,  the  Catawbas  on  the  river  of  that 

name,  and  the  Tuscaforas  on  the  Neusc,  said  to  be  the 

remnants  of  the  Mannakins  and.Mannahoacs  of  Virginia. 

James  Moore,  an  old  resident  of  South  Carolina,  "a 

needy,  forward,  ambitious  man,"  appointed  by  the  coun- 

1700.  oil  as  Blake's  successor,  and  confirmed  as  governor  by 

the  palatine,  undertook  to  enrich  himself  by  kidnapping 


SECOND  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR/  2«2  9 

Indians  to  sell  as  slaves,  and  by  engrossing  the  Indian  CHAPTER   • 

*  WTI 

traffic.     In  this  latter  project  he  encountered  the  oppesi- _s 

tion  of  Nicholas  Trott,  a  man  not  unlike  himself,  a  lead-  1701, 
er  in  the  Assembly.  Trott,  however,  was  gained  over 
by  an  appointment  as  attorney  general,  and  a  new  and 
more  subservient  Assembly  was  presently  elected.  •  No 
sooner  was~  the  commencement  of  hostilities  known  in  1702. 
Carolina,  than  the  hope  of  Spanish  plunder  and  Indian 
captives  stimulated  Moore  to  an  expedition  against  St. 
Augustine.  Six  hundred  colonists  volunteered  for  the 
enterprise,  and  Moore  sailed  with  a  part  of  them  from  §ept. 
Port  Royal  in  vessels  pressed  for  the  service.  Robert 
Daniel,  with  the  remainder  and  six  hundred  Indians, 
marched  by  land.  The  town  of  St.  Augustine 'was  eas- 
ily taken ;  but  the  soldiers  retired  into  the  fort,  a  well- 
built,  and  formidable  fortress,  and  the  besiegers  found 
themselves  obliged  to  wait  the  return  of  a  sloop  sent  to 
Jamaica  to  procure  heavy  artillery. 

Meanwhile  an  Indian  runner  communicated  informa- 
tion of  the  siege  to  the  French  at  Mobile,  now  the  allies 
of  the  Spaniards.  Word  was  sent  from  Mobile  to  Ha- 
vana, and  two  Spanish  ships  of  war  from  that  port  pres- 
ently appeared  off  St.  Augustine  ;  upon  sight  of  which, 
Moore  hastily  abandoned  his  vessels -and  stores,  and  re*', 
treated  by  land. 

To  meet  the  expenses  of  this  unsuccessful  expedition, 
South  Carolina  issued  her  first  bills  of  credit,  amounting , 
to  d£6000,  to  be  paid  off  in  three  years  by  a  tax  on  liq- 
uors and  geltry.      Double  rates  were  imposed  on  traders :  • 
not  permanent  residents— a  discrimination  loudly  com- 
plained of  by  the  English  merchants. 

The  old  antipathy  in  South  Carolina  between  Church- 
men and  Dissenters  Was  not  yet  extinguished.  Lord 
Grenville,  the  palatine,  a  stiff  High  Churchman,  pres-  ' » 


230          '  HISTORY    OF-  THE    UNITED    STAGES. 

CHAPTEE  entty  gave  the  appointment  as  governor  to  Sir  Nathaniel 

^_  Johnson,  an  immigrant  "from  the  West  Indies,  governor 

1703.  under  James   II.   of  the   Leeward   Islands,   as  good  a 
Churchman '  as  Grenville  himself.      He  was,  in  fact,  a 
non-juror,  and  it  was  not  without  difficulty  that  his  ap- 
pointment was  confirmed  by  the  queen.      The  Church- 
men, though  not  a  third  part  of  the  inhabitants,  hap- 
pened to  have  a  majority  of  one  in  the  Assembly  ;   and 
through  the  management  of  Trott,  promoted  to  be  chief 
.  justice,  and  of  Moore,  who  now  held  the  office  of  receiver 
1 T04.  general,  an  act  was  passed  requiring  all  members  of  As- 
May.     gembly  to  take  the  sacrament  according  to  the  rites  of 
the  Church  of  England  ;  or,  if  they  thought  themselves 
unqualified  for  that  solemnity,  to  subscribe  a  declaration 
of  their  adhesion  to  that  Church.     In  spite  of  the  remon- 
strances of  the  Dissenters,  and  the  opposition  of  Arch- 
dale,  this  act  was  eagerly  approved  by  the   proprieta- 
1705.  ries.      Another  act,  designed  to  prepare  the  way  for  the 
.  charitable  co-operation   of  the  Society  for  Propagating 
the  Gospel,  divided  the  province  into  parishes,  and  gave 
a  legal  establishment  to  the  Church  of  England.      A 
board  of  twenty  lay  commissioners  was  also  created,  with 
power  of  presentation  and  removal,  and  Episcopal  au- 
thority to  supervise  the  tnorals  both  of  clergy  and  la- 
ity ;   an  institution  which'  the  Bishop  of  London  com- 
plained of  as  a  sacrilegious  intrusion  on  his   episcopal 
rights,  while  -the  Dissenters  denounced  it  as  another  Star 
Chamber. 

Dec.  In  the  midst  of  the  agitation  thus  produced,  perhaps 
to  divert  the  public  attention,  a  new  expedition  was  un- 
dertaken against  Florida.  At  the  head  of  fifty  white 
volunteers  and  about  a  thousand  Creek  Indians,  Moore 
marched  through  the  woods,  and,  without  any  warning, 
fell  upon  the  Spanish-Indian  settlements  of  the  Appa- 


SECOND  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  2'3  1 

lachees.      The  Spanish  fort  was  too  strong  to  be  taken.  CHAPTER 

*  xxii 

but  the  Indian  villages  were  plundered,  and  the  churches     .-..'' 

robbed  and  burned.  Two  thousand  of  these  Indians  were  17()£. 
removed  and  settled  on  the  banks  of  the  Altamaha. 
Their  country, -given  up  to  the  Indian  allies,  was  occu- 
pied by  the  Seminoles,  or  Lower  Creeks.  When  the 
Seminoles  were  expelled  by  General  Jackson,  a  century 
and  a  quarter  afterward,  many  traces  were  discovered 
of  the  ancient  Spanish  missionary  villages,  the  whole, 
however,  grown  over  with  forests. 

The  next  year,  Charleston,  suffering  at  the  time  from  1706. 
a  malignant  fever,  was  attacked  by   a  French  frigate     Aug-  • 
and  four  Spanish  sloops.      Though  Johnson  was  not  able 
to  muster  more  than  nine  hundred  men,  the  assailants 
met  .a  warm  reception.      The  French  ship  was  taken, 
and  of  eight  hundred  French  troops  landed,  near  half 
were  killed  or  made  prisoners.      This  attack  occasioned 
a  new. issue  of  paper  money,  to  the  amount  of  £8000, 
funded  on  the  same  taxes  as  before,  and  circulated,  like 
the  former  issue,  at  a  great  depreciation. 

B'lbberville,  the  founder  of  the  Louisiana  colony,  sail-  1707. 
ed  from  France  with  a  considerable  fleet,  and,  after  levy- 
ing .contributions  on  St.  Kitt's  and  Nevis,  proceeded  to 
St.  Domingo,  to  take  troops  on  board  for  a  new  attack  on 
Charleston.  But  he  died  there  of  the-  yellow  fever,  and 
the  expedition  was  abandoned. 

The  Dissenters,  repulsed  by  the  proprietaries,  had 
found  an  advocate  in  Lord  Somers,  who  brought  their 
case  before  the  House  of  Peers.  The  proprietaries  were 
heard  by  counsel ;  but  the  peers  resolved  that  the  acts 
complained  of  were  unwarranted  by  the  charter,  unrea- 
sonable, and  illegal ;  and  the  queen,  on  their  address, 
-tliough  she  had  no  negative  by  the  terms  of  the  charter, 
yet,  by  advice  of  the  crown  lawyers,  proclaimed  the  ob- 


232  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

'    ',  '. 

CHAPTER  noxious  laws  void,  and  directed  steps  to  be. taken  for  the 
xxli      "~ '  '•'  •  *  ' ' 

.      forfeiture  of  the  proprietary  rights. 

1707.  Notwithstanding  this  triumph,  the  Dissenters  lost  that 
religious  equality  which  they  had  hitherto  enjoyed,  A 
.'  new  act  of  Assembly,  while  it  guaranteed  toleration,  es- 
'tablished  the  Church  of  England  as  the  religion  of  the 
province,  to  be  supported  at  the  public  expense  ;  the 
appointment  'of  ministers  to  be  by  the  commissary  of 
the  Bishop  of  London,  who  thus  regained  his  episcopal 
jurisdiction.  Most  of  the  first  ministers  were  mission- 
aries partially  supported  by  the  Society  for  Propagating 
the  Gospel.  '  "  Many  various  opinion^"  had  been  spread 
in  the  colony,  "-by  a  multitude  of  teachers  and  expound- 
ers of  all  sorts  and  persuasions,"  so  one  of  the  church 
missionaries  reported.  But  the  Churchmen  maintained 
the  superiority  they  had  assumed,  and  the  Dissenters, 
by  degrees,  Were  mostty  absorbed  into  the  Church,  which 
remained  a  legal  establishment  till  the  period  of  the  Rev- 
olution. 

The  cultivation  of  rice  had  already  become  so  con- 

1704.  siderable,  that  a  recent  act  of  Parliament  had  placed  it 
in  the  list  of  "enumerated  articles."  ', 

1710.  Qn  the  death  of^dward  Tinte,  sent  out  with  instruc- 
tions to  reconcile^  the  minds  of  the  inhabitants  to  each 
other,  so  as  to  extinguish  the  name  of  party,  but  who 
fell  a  victim  to  the  climate  shortly  after  his  arrival,  a. 
violent  dispute  arose  as  to  the  temporary  successorship 
between  Gibbs  and  Broughton,  both  proprietary  deputies, 
and  beth  claiming  the  vote  of  the  only  other  deputy  ii}  the 
province,  who  died  suddenly  after  voting  first  for  one,  and 
then,  through  bribery,  as  it  was  alleged,  for  the  other. 
Gibbs  succeeded  in  holding  on  to  the  office,  but  he  was 
soon  superseded  by  Charles  Craven,  late  secretary  of  the 
province,  and  brother  of  Lord  Craven,  the  palatine. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  AND  VIRGINIA. 


233 


'The  population  of  North  Carolina  was  nearly  equal  to  CHAPTEH 
that  of  the  southern  province.  Tobacco,  the  principal 
staple,  was  produced  in  considerable  quantity.  But  there  1710. 
was  no  direct  intercourse  with  the  mother  country,  the 
commerce  of  this  district  being  still  monopolized  by  trad- 
ing vessels  from  New  England.  Deer  skins,  .hides,  tal- 
low, corn,  and  other  agricultural  produce,  at  prices  fixed 
from  time  to  time  by  the  Assembly,  constituted  the  cur- 
rency in  which  debts  and  quit-rents  were  paid ;  and  it 
was  by  assignments  of  portions  of  these  quit-rents  that 
the  proprietaries  met  the  salaries  of  their  officers.  Jt  %  • 
seems  to  have  been  the  custom,  after  the  time  of  Arch- 
dale,  that  the  governor  of  South  Carolina  should  give  to 
the  governor  of  the  northern  province  a  commission  as 
deputy.  Thomas  Gary  received  such  a  commission  from  1703. 
Sir  Nathaniel  Johnson.  But  in  other  respects,  the  two 
divisions  of  the  province  remained  as  distinct  as  ever, 
each  with  its  separate  council  and  Assembly.,  A  strong 
effort  was  made  by,  the  proprietaries,  to  obtain  for  the 
Church  of  England  a  legal  establishment.  In  the  north- 
ern as  well  as  in  the  southern  province,  money  was  voted 
for  building  x churches  and  paying  ministers  ;  but  this 
scheme  encountered  great  reluctance  and  delay,  the 
Quakers' and  other  Dissenters  being  very  unwilling  /to 
submit  to  it. 

Virginia  still  maintained  its  reputation  a«  the  most 
quiet  and  manageable  of  all  the  English  colonies  in 
America.  The  increasing  consumption  of  tobacco-  fur- 
.nished  a  steady  demand  for  that  staple,  and  political  dis- 
turbances were  no  longer  stimulated  by  pecuniary  dis- 
tress. The  Virginians  began  already  to  put  on  some 
airs  of  importance.  The  large  income  derived  by  the 
mother  country  from  the  duties  on  tobacco  made  them 
consider  their  province  of  greater  consequence  to  the 


2.34  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  crown  than  all  -the  others  put  together.  Hence  they 
___!_  were  "led  to  "a  nice  inquiry  into  the  circumstances  of 
1705,  the  g6vernment ;"  and,  finding  that  others  enjoyed  great- 
er privileges,  they  began  to  grow  uneasy,  and  to  imbibe 
somewhat  "  the  malignant  humor  of  the  charter  colo- 
nies." But  the.  tendency  in  Virginia  was  not  so  much 
to  democracy  as  to  aristocracy,  or  rather  to  oligarchy. 
,  'According  to  Quarry,  Randolph's  successor  as  surveyor 
general  of  the  colonial  customs,  from  whom  the  forego- 
ing statement  is  derived,  there  were  at  this  time,  on 
each  of  the  four  great  rivers,  "men  in  number  from  ten 
to  thirty,  who  by  trade  and  industry  have  got  very  com- 
petent estates.  These  gentlemen  take  care  to  supply 
the  poorer  sort  with  goods  and  necessaries,  and  are  sure 
to  keep  them  always  in  their  debt,  and,  consequently,  de- 
pendent on  them.  Out  of  this  number  are  chosen  the 
council,  Assembly,  justices,  and  other  officers  of  govern- 
ment." The  justices,  besides  their  judicial  functions, 
managed  the  business  and  finances  of  their  respective 
counties.  Parish  affairs  were  in  the  hands  of  self-per- 
petuating vestries,  which  kept  even  the  ministers  "in 
check  by  avoiding  induction,  and  hiring  them  only  from 
year  to  year.  The  twelve  counselors  possessed  exten- 
sive authority  ;  their  assent  was  necessary  to  all  the 
governor's  official  acts ;  they  constituted  one  branch  of 
the  Assembly  ;  they  exercised  the  principal  judicial  au- 
thority as  judges  of  the  General  Court ;  they  were  at 
the  head  of  the  militia  as  lieutenants  of  the  counties ; 
<  they  acted  as  collectors  of  the  export  duty  on  tobacco 
and  the  other  provincial  imposts,  arid  generally,  also,  of 
the  Parliamentary  duties,  while  they  farmed  the  king's 
quit-rents  at  a  very  favorable  bargain.  A  majority  of 
these  counselors,  united  together  by  a  sort  of  family  com- 
pact, aspired  to  engross  the  entire  management  of  the 


FIFTH   CODE   OF   VIRGINIA.   .       v  23.5 

province.      Already  Andros  had  been  made  -to  feel  the  QHAPTEK 
power  of  this  combination ;   and  by  the  same  interest,  .' 

also,  the  removal  of  Nicholson  was  presently  obtained.  1705. 
His  conduct,  indeed,  pronounced  even  by  the  indulgent 
Chalmers  "  imprudent,  if  not  corrupt,"  afforded  his  op- 
ponents but  too  great  an  advantage. 
,  A  policy  was  now  adopted  by  the  ministers  of  Anne, 
similar  to  the  gift  of  Virginia  to  Arlington  and  Culpep- 
per  by  Charles  II.  The  office  of  governor,  bestowed  as 
a  sinecure  upon  the  Earl  of  Orkney,  was  held  as  such 
for  near  fifty  years,  the  nominal  governor  pocketing 
three  fifths  of  the  annual  salary  without  ever  once  Set- 
ting foot  in  the  province.  The  remaining  ^£800  went 
to  pay  the  deputy  governor,  by  whom  the  work  was  ac- 
tually done.  -;.y, 

The  first  of  these  deputies  was  Edward  Nott,  under 
whose  administration  was  completed  and  sanctioned  by 
the  Assembly  a  fifth  revision  of  the  Virginia  code,  in  prog- 
ress for  the  last  five  years  by  a  committee  of  the  coun- 
cil and  burgesses.  ,  This  code  provided  that  "  all  serv- 
ants imported  or  brought  into  this  country  by  sea  or 
land,  who  were  not  Christians  in  their  native  country 
(except  Turks  and  Moors  in  amity  with  her  majesty,  and  •' 
others  who  can  make  due  proof  of  their  being  free  in 
England  or  any  other  Christian  country  before  they 
were  shipped  in  order  to  transportation  thither),  shall  be 
accounted,  arid  be  slaves,  notwithstanding  a  conversion 
to  Christianity  afterward,"  or  though  they  may  have 
been  in  England ;  "all  children  to  be  bond  or  free,  ac^ 
cording  to  the  condition  of  their  mothers."  Such,  after 
various  changes,  was  the  final  enactment  in~  Virginia, 
under  which,  to  this  day,  so  large  a  part  of  the  popula- 
tion is  held  in  servitude.  The  original  idea  that  no 
Christian  could  be  reduced  to^  slavery  is  still  apparent  in 


\ 

\ 

236  HISTQRY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  this,act ;   for,  in  the  case  of  imported  servants,  the  ques- 

__s tion^  of  freedom  or  slavery  is  made  to  depend,  not  upon 

1705. 'color  or  race,  but  religkm.  Notwithstanding  the  sweep- 
ing clauses  of  the  above-cited  provision, it  has  been  held, 
as  has  been  already  mentioned,  not  to  extend  to  the  de- 
scendants of  Indians  brought  as  slaves  into  Virginia  since 
.1691, 

.*  Negroes,  mulattoes,  and  Indians  are  "incapacitated  by 
this  code  to  purchase  Christian  servants,  to  tiold  office  in 
the  colony,  or  to  be  witnesses  in  any  case  whatsoever. 
'  The  child  of  an  Indian — the  child,  grandchild,  or  great- 
grandchild of  a  negro,  are  to  be  esteemed  mulattoes. 

By  a  humane  provision  of  this  code,  slaves  are  made 
real' estate,  and  thus,  as  it  were,  attached  to  the  soil. 
Nor  can  it  be  said-  that  the  sole  object  was  to  shield 
them  from  seizure  for  debt — they  remained  liable  to  that 
as  before.  '  They  were  also  to  descend  like  personal 
property,  but  provision  was  made  by  which  the  heir  of 
the  plantation  could  buy  out  the  inherited  interest  of 
others  in-  the  slaves.  Such  continued  to  be  the  law  so 
long  as  Virginia  remained  a  British  colony. 

Servants  "  sold  for  the  custom,"  that  is,  having  no 
indentures,  if  over  nineteen  years  of  age,  are  to  serve 
five  years  ;  if  under  nineteen,  till  twenty-four — their 
ages  to  be  adjudged  by  the  county  court.  Masters  are 
to  provide  "  wholesome  and  competent  diet,  clothing, 
and  lodging,  by  the  discretion  of  the  county  court;" 
nor  shall  they  at  any  time  give  immoderate  correction, 
nor  "  whip  a  Christian  white  servant  naked,"  without 
an  'order  from  a  justice  of  the  peace,  under  penalty  of 
forty  shillings  to  the  servant,  to  be  recovered,  with  costs, 
on  complaint  to  a  justice  of  the,  peace,  "without  the 
formal  process  of  an  action."  Justices  are  bound  to  re- 
qeive  and  investigate  the  complaints  of  all  servants  "  not 


FIFTH  CODE   OF   VIRGINIA. 


237 


being  slaves."     Any  resistance  or  offer  of  violence  on'  the  CHAPTER 

•    '•  \  XXII 

part  of  a  servant  is  punishable  by  an  additional  year's Lj 

servitude.  Servants  are  guaranteed  the  possession  of 
such  property  as  may  lawfully  come  to  them  by  gift  or 
otherwise,  but  no  person  may  deal  with  them  except  by 
permission  of  their  masters.  ^In  case  of  fines  inflicted 
by  penal  laws,  unless  some  one  would  pay  the  fines  for 
them,  servants  are  to  be  punished  by  whipping,  at  the 
rate  of  twenty  lashes  for  every  five  hundred  pounds  of  to- 
bacco, or  fifty  shillings  sterling- — each  stroke  being  thus 
estimated  at  about  sixty  cents.  Women  servants  hav- 
ing bastards  are  to  forfeit  to  their  masters  an  additional 
year's  service,  unless  the  master  were  the  father,  in  which 
case  the  forfeiture  accrues  to  the  church-wardens.  In 
case  the  father  were  a  negro  or  mulatto,  other  penalties 
are  added,  as  by  a  law  formerly  mentioned.  The  provi- 
sions for  the  arrest  of  runaways,  which  are  sufficiently 
stringent,  apply  equally  to  slaves  and  servants,  except 
that  outlying  slaves  might 'be  killed,  and  irreclaimable 
runaways  "  dismembered."  If  these  restrictions  on  the 
power  Of  masters  were  found  useful  and  necessary  in  the 
case  of  white  servants,  why  might  they  not  now  be  ben- 
eficially applied  to  the  case  of  negro  slaves  ? 

Every  male  servant  at  his  dismissal,  his  time  of  serv- 
ice being  complete,  was  entitled  to  ten  bushels  of  Indian 
corn,  thirty  shillings  in  money  or  the  value  in  goods, 
and  "  one  well-fixed  musket  or  fusee,  of  the  value  of 
twenty  shillings  at  the  least."  Every  woman  servant, 
on  her  discharge,  was  entitled  to  fifteen  bushels  of  In- 
dian corn,  and  forty  shillings,  or  the  value  in  goods. 

The  Indians  east  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  of  whom  only  a 
few, scattered  bands  remained,  were  no  longer  objects  of 
fear,  and  this  code  contains  many  humane  provisions  for 
their  security  and  protection. .  The  Indian  trade,  as  has 


238    .'          HISTORY  X3F    THE    UNITED    STATES. 
-,    * 

CHAPTER  been  mentioned,  was  ppen  to  all — except  in  rum  or  bran- 

•  dy,  the  sale  of  which  was  prohibited  in  the  Indian  towns 

1705.  - — -but  exclusive  privileges  are  promised  to  the  discover- 
ers of  new  tribes  west  of  the  mountains,  a  region  still 
unexplored  and  unknown. 

.  *  Each  county,  by  this  code,  is  to  have  two  burgesses, 
and  Jamestown  one,  to  be  elected  by  the  freeholders 
(women,  infants,  and  popish  recusants  convict  excepted). 
All  persons  duly  qualified  are  liable  to  a  penalty  of  two 
hundred  pounds  of  tobacco  for  omitting  to  vote.  Elec- 
tions are  to  be  determined  "  upon  view,"  unless  a  poll 
is  demanded,  in  which  case  the  vote  is  to  be  given  viva 
voce,  the  sheriff  tp  keep  a  poll-book.  Bribery  and  treat- 
ing are  forbidden.  On  the  day  of  the  election,  public 
notice  is  to  be  given  of  the  time  and  place  of  holding  a 
court  "  for  the  receiving  and  certifying  to  the  next  ses- 
sion of  the  General  Assembly  the  propositions  and  griev- 
ances, and"  the  public  claims  of  all  and  every  person  and 
persons  within  the  county,"  these  claims  and  grievances 
to  be  signed  by  those  presenting  them,  and  certified  to 
the  General  Assembly,  previous  to  every  new  session  of 
which  a  like  court  is  to  be  held.  This  was  no  novelty, 
but  merely  the  reduction  to  legal  shape  of  a  long-estab- 
lished usage  of  the  province. 

Burgesses  coming  by  land  are  to  be  paid  one  hundred 
and  thirty  pounds  of  tobacco  per  day,  besides  ferriage. 
Those  coming  by  water  are  to  have  one  hundred  and 
.twenty  pounds  'per  day,  the  sheriffs,  being  authorized  to 
impress  a  boat  and  two  men  to  convey  them  to  "Williams- 
^ burg,  or,,  in  the  eastern  shore  counties,  a  sloop.  The 
burgesses,  divided  into  four  classes,  according  to  their  re- 
spective distances,  are  to  be  paid  respectively  for  one,  two, 
three,  and  four  days  going  and  returning. 

Out  of  the  export  duty  on  tobacco  the  twelve  co.un- 


FIFTH   CODE   OF  VIRGINIA..  239 

selors  are  allowed  £350  sterling,  about  $1600,  annually,  CHAPTER 
for  their  attendance  at  the  General  Assembly  and  the  ___ 
two  semi-annual  General  Courts,  to  be  "proportioned"  17051 
among  them    "according  to  the  time  qf  their  attend- 
ance." 

The  "  importation  right"  to  fifty  acres  of  land  apper- 
taining to  every  person  coming  into  the  colony  to  reside, 
being  established  by  proof  on  oath  in  any  court  ojf  law,  4 
and  recorded  with  the  secretary,  is  sufficient  foundation 
for  a  survey,  at  the  choice  of  the  holder,  of  any  lands 
not  hitherto  appropriated  ;  which  survey,  made  and  re- 
turned to  the  secretary's  office,  authorized  the  issue  of  a 
patent.  These  importation  rights  were  transferable ; 
and  rights  of  survey  might  also  be  obtained  by  pay- 
ments into  the  province  treasury  at  the  rate  of  a  shilling 
sterling  for  every  ten  acres.  But  not  more  than  five 
hundred  acres  were  to  be  taken  up  in  one  tract,  except 
by  persons  owners  of  at  least  five  tithable  slaves  or  serv- 
ants. Such  persons,  for  each  tithable  slave  or  servant 
above  five,  might  take  up  an  additional  two  hundred 
acres,  but  no  single  patent  was  to  exceed  four  thousand 
acres  in  extent.  All  patents  became  void  unless  "  seat- 
ed and  planted"  within  three  years  "  by  the  building  of 
one  house  of  wood  after  the  usual  manner  of  building  in 
this  colony,"  and  clearing,  planting,  and  tending  one 
acre  of  land.  A  land  system  so  loose  as  this  could  not 
but  lead,  in  the  end,  to  infinite  litigation. 

Debtors  lying  in  prison  three  months,  and  giving  up 
all  their  proper ty;  are  entitled  to  their  personal  dis- 
charge. Book  debts  may  be  proved  by  the  plaintiff's 
own  oath,  but,  contrary  to  the  practice  of  .New  En* 
gland,  the  defendant  had  the  right  also  to  swear  <the 
other  way.  :V.*</J 

The  rise  of  a  landed  aristocracy  was  strikingly  evinc- 


,*? , 

J" 
HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  ed  by  an  act  prohibiting  fines  and  recoveries,  and  allow- 
ing entails  to  be  docked  only  by  act  of  Assembly, 

1705.  -By  the  old  law  of  the  colony,  five  years'  possession  of 
land  gave  a  title ;  but  by  this  code  the  right  of  entry 
<:wa&  not.  to  be  barred -for  twenty  years,  and  writs  of  right 
might  be  maintained  on  a  seisin  within  fifty,  years.  As 
respected  other  matters,  the;  provisions  of  the  English 
statute  of  limitations  were  pretty  closely  followed. 

17,06.       Nott  dying  at  the  end  of  a  twelvemonth,  the  place  of 

•lieutenant  was  given  to  Hunter,  afterward < governor  of 

New  York ;  but  he  was  captured  on  his  passage  out,  and 

carried  into  France.    ,  Edmund  Jennings,  president  of  the 

council,  remained  at  the  head  of  the  administration  for 

1710.  four,  years*.  A  new  lieutenant  was  presently  appointed 
in  the  person  of  Alexander  Spots  wood,  a  military  officer 
of  sense  and  experience,  who  carried  to  Virginia  the 
queen's  consent  to  the  extension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus 
Act  to  that  province — a  privilege  hitherto  denied,  though 
on  what  legal  grounds  it  is  not  easy  to  see. 

Shortly  after  his  arrival,  jealous  of  the  projects  of  the 
French,  and  anxious  to  discover  a  passage  across  the 
mountains — a  thing  not  attempted  since  the  days  of 
Berkeley — with  a  large  retinue,  and  no  little  pomp  and 
ceremony,  Spots  wood  passed  the  Blue  Ridge.  Settlers 
were  slow  to  follow ;  but  Indian  traders  penetrated  the 
Alleganies,  and  gradually  obtained  for  the  English  some 
obscure  knowledge  of  the  country  on  the  Ohio  and  the 
Western  lakes. 

1702.  In  Maryland,  upon  a  fourth  attempt,  the  aot  to  es- 
tablish the  Episcopal  Church  was  at  last  made  accept- 
able. Toleration  was  secured  to  Protestant  dissenters ; 
but,  "to  prevent  the  growth  of  popery,"  the  unfortunate 
Catholics,  the  founders  of  the  province,  were  subjected 

1704.  to  a  legalized  system  of  persecution,  copied  from  English 


MARYLAND. 

and  Irish  enactments.      Mass  might  not  be  said  publicly.  CHAPTER 
Catholics  were  forbidden  to  preach  or  to  teach.      Children 
were  even  tempted  to  change  their  religion  by  the  offer  1704. 
of  an  immediate  share  in  the  property  of  their  Catholia 
fathers. 

The  same  causes  which  tended  in  Virginia  to  build 
up  a  local  aristocracy,  operated  also  in  Maryland.  The 
cultivation  of  tobacco  enriched  a  few ;  but  the  great  pro- 
portion of  the  planters,  "  a  careless,  unthinking  sort  of 
folk,"  were  degraded  by  ignorance  and  overwhelmed  with  i 
debt.  Under  Seymour,  the  successor  of  Blackstone,  the 
free-school  project  was  revived.  A  variety  of  duties 
were  imposed  far  its  support — non-residents  to  pay 
double  ;  and  out  of  the  funds  thus  provided,  a  free  school 
was,  ultimately  established  in  each  county. 

Laws  Were  also  passed  for  the  ease  of  debtors,  and  for 
reducing  the  damages  on  protested  bills  of  exchange,  ' 
which  Seymour  represented  as  the  "  epidemic  disease  of 
the  country ;"  but  the  remonstrance  of  the  British  mer- 
chants, and  the  recommendation  of  the  Board  of  Trade; 
caused  these  laws  to  be  negatived  by  the  queen.  Thus 
disappointed,  some  of  the  poorer  and  more  ignorant  col- 
onists entered  into  an  absurd  conspiracy,  of  which  the  17051. 
object  is  represented  to  have  been  to  seize  the  govern- 
ment by  the  help  of  the  Indians — a  project  nipped  in  the 
bud  by  the  outlawry,  attainder,  and  execution  of  Clarke, 
the  principal  conspirator. 

Though  entirely  free  from  the  burdens  and  dangers 
of  the  war,  the  Assembly  of  Maryland  made  loud  com- 
plaints of  poverty  and  hard  times.     With  the  usual  ea- 
gerness of  trade,  the  English  merchants  had  overtrusted 
the  colonists,  who  sought  relief  in  laws  for  the  discharge-   , 
of  debtors  and  for  preventing  «  aggrievanees  in  the  pros- 
ecution of  suits."      Seymour  was  succeeded  by  Edward  1709. 
II.— Q, 


2.42  HISTORY  OF.  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

\ 

CHAPTER  Lloyd,  president  of  the  .council,  who  remained  at  the 

_______  head  of  the- province  till  the  appointment  of  John  Hart 

1714.  as  governor: 

The  Charter  of  Privileges -did  not  establish  the  desired 
harmony  between  Perm  and  his  colonists.  The  aged 
Andrew  Hamilton,  late  governor  of  West  Jersey,  whom 
Penn,  at  his  departure,  appointed  as  his  deputy,  vainly 
attempted,  during  his  short  administration,  to  Iteep  the 
province  united.  Under  the  clause  to  that  effect  in  the 

1702.  Charter  of  Privileges,  the  separation  between  Pennsyl- 
vania and  Delaware  now  became  final  and  complete. 
They  continued  to  have  the  same  governor  and  council, 
•  but  their  administration,  in  other  respects,  became  en- 
tirely distinct. 

1704.-  John  Evans,  the  successor  of  Hamilton,  strove  to  bring 
about  a  reunion,  but  neither  province  would  agree  to  it; 
and  Delaware  even  sent  an  agent  to  England  to  repre- 
sent that  Penn  had  no  rights  of  jurisdiction,  and  to  beg 
the  appointment  of  a  royal  governor. 

Nor  was  the  other  province  in  much  better  humor. 
Some  dispute  had  arisen  before  Evans's  arrival  as  to  the 
power  of  the  Assembly  to  regulate  its  own  adjournments 
- — an  authority  which  the  new  governor  strove  to  curtail. 
A  Church  of  England  party  had  sprung  up  in  the  prov- 
ince, headed  by  the  officers  of  the  admiralty  courts,  and 
joined  by  most  of  those  friends  and  followers  of  Keith 
«  .who  had  lately  borne  the  title  of  Christian  Quakers. 
These  Episcopalians  "watched  the  proceedings  of  the 
Quaker  magistrates  with  a  jealous  eye,  representing 
them  as  unfit  to  rule, .especially  in  time  of  war.  A  re- 
cent act  of  Parliament,  which  provided,  indeed,  for  scru- 
ples about  taking  oaths,  but  made  no  provision  for  scru- 
ples about  ad  ministering,  them,  was  considered  a  griev. 
ance  by  the  Quakers. 


PENNSYLYANJA.  3  4,3 

*  >  -  •  '*  * 

Evans  having  dropped  a  hint  that  Penn  "  might  throw  CHAPTER 
off  a  load  he  had  found  too  heavy,"  the  anger  of  the  As-      •' 
sembly  reached  a  high  pitch.      Headed  by  David  Lloyd,  1704, 
their  speaker,  a  Quaker  lawyer,  who  had  acted  for  a 
time  as  Penn's  attorney  general,  they  agreed  to  nine 
resolutions,  which,   after  the  adjournment,  were  drawn 
out  by  Lloyd  into  a  memorial,  addressed  to  the  proprie- 
tary.      Penn  was  charged  in  this  memorial  with  having 
evaded  the  fulfillment  of  his  original  promises  to  the  col-  c   , 
onists  by  artfully  recovering  that  negative  on  the  Assem- 
bly which  he  had  once  yielded;   with  playing  the  part 
of  a  hard  and  exacting  landlord;   with  keeping  the  con- 
stitution of  the  courts  and  the  administration  of  justice 
in  his  own  hands;   with  appointing  oppressive  officers  ; 
and,  finally,  with  a  downright  betrayal  of  the  colonists 
in  his  present  negotiation  for  parting  with  the  govern- 
ment—a matter  in  which  he  was  charged  to  proceed  no 
further,  lest  it  should  look  like  a  "  first  fleecing  and  then 
selling." 

The  indignant  Penn  demanded  the  punishment   of   1705. 
Lloyd,  whom  he  charged  with  having  disingenuously  ex- 
ceeded his  authority  in  drawing  up  and  forwarding  this 
rough  address.     Nor  were  his  remonstrances  without  ef- 
fect.     The  new  Assembly  shifted  off  the  responsibility 
of  Lloyd's  memorial  upon  their  predecessors.     The  friends 
of  the  proprietary,  headed  by  Logan,  secured  a  majority 
the  next  year,  which  provided  for  the  support  of  govern-  1706. 
ment,  and  voted  an  affectionate  address  to  Penn. 

This  good  humor,  however,  did  not  continue  long. 
Penn's  choice  of  governors  was,  indeed,  a  little  singular. 
Evans  was  a  young  man,  fond  of  pleasure,  without  a  par- 
ticle of  sympathy  for  the  peculiar  notions  of  the  Quak- 
ers. Logan,  who  had  a  chief  hand  in  the  administra- 
tion, though  a  Quaker  in  for/n,  was  hardly  so  in  fact. 


244  .HISTORY   OF   THE;  UNITED    STATES. 

•  -  *•  ^*  '.     *  L>  ' 

CHAPTER  Evans  attempted  in  vain  to  induce  the  Assembly  to  as- 

VYTT        *      .•  *  ** 

'  '  '  sent  to  some  sort  of  military  organization.     He  even  re- 

1706.  sorted  to  the  stratagem  of  a  false  alarm,  in  which  Logan 
.  participated,  not  a  little  to  his  discredit  with  the  Quak- 
ers.    A  fort  erected  at  Newcastle,  at  which  all  Vessels 
going  up  and  down  the  river  were  obliged  to  report  them- 
selves, was  complained  of  as  a  grievance.     Warm  dis- 
putes arose  as  to  the  courts  of  justice.      The  Assembly 
proposed  a  supreme  court  of  law  and  equity,  to  be  com- 
posed of  three  judges,  to  hold  office  during  good  behavior, 
to  appoint  their,  own  clerk,  and  to  be  paid  out  of  the 
fines  and  forfeitures.      Evans  wished  to  reserve  the  equi- 
ty jurisdiction  for  himself  anrf  his  council.      For  other 
matters  he  preferred  a  single  judge,  removable  at  the 
pleasure  of  the  proprietary.      The  fines  and  forfeitures 

'  he  claimed  as  a  part  of  Penn's  personal  revenue,  as  well 
as  the  fees  on  tavern  licenses,  out  of  which  the  Assem- 
bly wished  to  support  the  county  courts.  As  no  com- 
promise could  be  arranged,  Evans  assumed  a  power, 
which  he  claimed  for  the  proprietary  under  the  charter, 
but  which  the  Assembly  denied,  of  establishing  courts 
by  proclamation. 

1707.  A  new  Assembly,  with  David  Lloyd  again  for  speaker, 
transmitted  to  Perm  a  long  list  of  complaints  against 
Evans  and  Logan.      The  loose  conduct  and  dissipated 
life  of  Evans,  who  had  as  a  companion  of  his  revels  Will- 

f  iam  Penn  the  younger,  the  proprietary's  eldest  son,  gave 
the  complainants  a  decided  advantage.  Penn  ascribed 
his  son's  ruin  to  his  residence  in  Pennsylvania  ;  and  that 
son  publicly  renounced  Quakerism,  giving  for  a  reason 
the  ingratitude  of  the  colonists  toward  his  father.  Ev- 
ans was  presently  recalled  ;  but  Penn  would  listen  to  no 
complaints  against  Logan.  Previous,  however,  to  Ev- 
ans's removal,  an  important  constitutional  point  was  set- 


PENNSYLVANIA. 


240 


tied  in  behalf  of  the  colonists.      Evans's  instructions  had  CHAPTER. 

Y  VTT 

reserved  to  the  proprietary  a  "  final  assent"  to  all  such  bills __ 

as  the  governor  should  pass.  But  the  council,  including  1707. 
Mompesson,  the  chief  justice,  William  Penn  the  youn- 
ger, and  even  Logan,  having  their  attention  called  to  the, 
subject  by  the  Assembly,  gave  their  opinion  that  this 
reservation  was  void,  and  that  assent  to  any  bill  being 
once  given  by  the  deputy  governor,  it  became  a  law,  and 
could  not  be  revoked  without  an  act  of  Assembly.  To 
get  rid  of  the  consequences  of  this  doctrine,  the  policy 
was  presently  adopted  by  the  proprietaries  of  requiring 
their  deputy  governors  to  give  bonds  to  obey  their 'in- 
structions. 

Penn  sent  as  Evans's  successor  Charles  Gookin,  a  1709. 
military  officer,  who  had,  however,  so  Penn  wrote,  "  tak- 
en leave  of  military  life."  The  new  governor,  recom- 
mended as  a  man  of  years,  sober,  moderate,  of  a  good 
family,  not  voluptuous,"  found  the  Assembly  in  very  bad 
humor  at  Penn's  refusal  to  dismiss  Logan.  They  im- 
mediately attacked  that  clause  of  Gookin 's  instructions 
which  required  him  to  follow  the  advice  of  his  council. 
Of  such  a  body  no  mention  was  made  either  in  the  royal 
charter  or  the  late  Charter  of  Privileges,  and  the  right, 
therefore,  of  the  council  to  participate  in  the  government 
the  Assembly  denied.  .-,]£  ,.: 

This  attack  on  the  council  was  really  aimed  at  Logan, 
who  was  also  assailed  by  name  as  "  an  enemy  to  the 
welfare  of  the  province,  and  abusive  of  the  representatives 
of  the  people."  The  Assembly  went  so  far  as  to  issue 
a  warrant  for  his  arrest ;  but  this  warrant  was  super- 
seded by  the  governor ;  and  Logan  proceeded  to  England,  1710. 
whence  he  soon  returned  with  a  letter  from  Penn,  reca- 
pitulating the  history  of  the  province,  and  his  costly  ef- 
forts to  serve  it ;  complaining  o/  the  indignities  put  upon 


246  HISTORY    OP    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

>  '  V. 

CHAPTER  him— a'ttacks  on  his  character,  intrusions  on  his  private 
-.  '.    property.,  and  the  attempt  to  compel  him  to  support  the 
fl 10.  government  out  of  his  quit-rents  and  other  dues;  inti- 
mating that  the  hostility  to  Logan  grew  out  of  his  faith- 
ful adherence  to  the  proprietary  interest ;   and  suggesting 
thai,  unless  a  change  took  place,  he  might  find  it  neces- 
sary, after  all,  to  dispose  of  so  troublesome  a  sovereignty. 
This  letter  produced  the  desired  effect.      At  the  next  elec- 
tion an  entirely  new  Assembly  was  chosen,  and  most  of 
the  points  in  dispute  were  arranged. 

Penn,  however,  had  made  up  his  mind  to  relieve  him- 
•     self  from  a  position  at  once  so  troublesome  and  unprofit- 
able—-a  step  to  which  he  was  further  induced  by  increas- 
ing pecuniary  embarrassments.      For  a  consideration  of 
d£l2,000,  he  entered  into  a  contract  for  ceding  the  sov- 
ereignty of  the  province  to  the  queen,  reserving  to  him- 
self the  quit-rents  and  property  in  the  soil.      Some  de- 
lay having  been   occasioned  by  the  representations  of 
Penn's  late  London  agent,  of  whom  he  had  borrowed 
money  at  most  usurious  rates  of  interest,  secured  by  a 
mortgage  on  the  province,  the  completion  of  the  contract 
1712.  was  finally  prevented  by  an  attack  of  paralysis,  which 
disabled  Penn  for  business,  though  he  continued  to  live 
some  six  years  longer. 

1702.  The  anti-Leislerian  party  in  New  York  had  obtained, 
by  the  patronage  of  Cornbury,  a  majority  in  the  new  As- 
sembly. They  showed  their  gratitude  by  a  present  of 
$6666  to  that  needy  governor,  and  by  raising  his  salary 
to  $4000,  double  the  former  amount.  They  also  con- 
tinued the  existing  revenue  for  seven  years.  The  Board 
of  Trade,  when  the  new  war  was  threatened,  had  adopted 
the  old  policy  of  calling  on  the  other  colonies  for  quotas 
toward  the  defense  of  New  York.  But  they  were  an- 
swered with  complaints  of  weakness  and  poverty,  and 


NEW  YORK  AND  NE  W  JER-SE  Y.  "247 

counter  calls  for    arms,  munitions,   and  naval  defense.  CHAPTER 

XXII 

The  Virginians  excused  themselves  by  alleging  that,  so 
far  as  they  were  concerned,  New  York  ought  not  to  be.  1702. 
regarded  as  a  fortified  barrier ;  and  Nicholson  in  vain 
tried  to  shame  them  by  affecting  to  advance  out  of  his 
own  pocket  the  £900  asked  for  as  their  quota.  Penn- 
sylvania was  equally  obstinate ;  and  since  these  two  prov- 
inces would  contribute  nothing,  Maryland  begged  to  be 
excused  from  paying  over  the  £300  which  she  had  voted. 

There  was  the  less  need  of  these  contributions,  -since 
New  York,  during  this  war,  enjoyed,  on  the  land  side^ 
a  sort  of  neutrality.  Unwilling  to  interrupt  the  peace 
so  recently  made  with  the  Iroquois,  the  Marquis  de  Va-u-  1703. 
dreuil,  the  new  governor  general  of  New  France,  sent  no 
war  parties  in  that  direction.  The  Five  Nations,  on 
their  part,  mindful  of  their  former  sufferingsr  and.  in- 
fluenced, no  doubt,  by  the  French  prisoners  adopted  into 
their  nation,  declined  to  raise  the  hatchet  against  the 
French,  or  to  dismiss  the  French  missionaries.:..;/'.;.*  ^ 

The  harbor  of  New  York  was  unfortified,  and  liable  V 
to  be  entered  by  French  privateers.  The  Assembly 
voted  money  to  erect  batteries  at  the  Narrows,  but  of 
the  expenditure  of  that  money  no  satisfactory  account 
could  be  obtained.  The  policy  was  thereupon  adopted 
by  the  Assembly — and  in  spite  of  the  remonstrances  of 
the  council,  the  authority  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  and  a 
dissolution  by  the  governor,  it  was  steadily  persisted  in — 
of  refusing  any  further  extraordinary  grants,  unless  to 
be  disbursed  by  a  treasurer  of  their  own. 

We  have  had  several  occasions  to  mention  the  farm 
on  Manhattan  Island  originally  the  property  of  the  Dutch 
West  India  Company,  known  successively  as  the  com- 
pany's, the  duke's,  the  king's,  and  the  queen's  farm,  and 
rented,  in  Cornbury's  time,  fos  £30  a  year.  This  farm 


248'  HIS.TO.RY   OF  THE   UNlT-E-D   STATES. 

CHAPTER  was  presented   by    Queen  Anne   to   the  new  English 
.         church  recently  completed  at  New  York,  under  the  act 
1703.  which  Fletcher  had  procured;  and  now  incorporated  by 
act  of  Assembly  .>    In  process  of  time,  with  the  exten- 
sion .of  the  city,  the  lands  thus  given  became  covered 
Wjth  buildings  ;  and,  let  on  long  leases,  they  still  produce 
the  ample  revenue  of  Trinity  Church. 

Cornbury  signalized  his  own  zeal  for  the  Church  of 
England  by  denying  the  right  of  preachers  or  school- 
masters to  exercise  their  functions  in  the  province  with- 
out a  bishop's  license.  He  was  justified  in  this  by  the 
letter  of  his  instructions  ;  but  when  he  caused  two  Pres- 
byterian missionaries,  sent  out  by  some  Dissenters  in 

1707.  England,  to  be  prosecuted,  the  jury  gave  a  verdict  of 
acquittal,  and  the  proceedings  excited  the  indignation  of 
the  colonists,  of  whom  but  very  few  were  members  of 
the  English  Church.     A  great  outcry  was  also  raised 
against  the  governor  for  his  extortions  in  the  way  of 

1708.  fees,  against  which  a  new  Assembly  energetically  remon- 
strated. 

Nor  was  -  Cornbury  any  more  popular  in  his  other 
province  of  New  Jersey,  which  was  torn  by  throe  con- 
tending parties,  the  Quakers,  the  Episcopalians,  and 
the  Presbyterian  and  Congregational  dissenters,  to  either 
of  which  the  governor  was  ready  to  sell  himself,  though 
his  leaning  was  very  decided  to  the  Church  of  England. 
1707.  The  Assembly,  at  last,  in  a  pungent  address,  read  to  the 
governor  by  Samuel  Jennings,  the  speaker,  directly  ac- 
cused him,  besides  other  things,  of  being  the  "  merchan- 
dise of  factions."  Lewis  Morris,  a  native  of  New  York 
and  a  counselor  of  New  Jersey,  who  acted  for  many 
years  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  affairs  of  both  provinces, 
displaced  from  his  office  of  counselor  by  the  governor, 
but  elected  in  consequence  to  the  Assembly,  represented 


MASSACHUSETTS;  .:!  {ft  2  4  9 


to  the  English  secretary  of  state  Cornbury's  vices  and  CHAPTER 

misbehavior.      The  Board  of  Trade,  on  complaint  of  the  , 

owners  of  a  merchant  vessel  which  he  had  seized  at  1709. 
New  York  under  some  pretense  of  violations  of  the  acts 
of  trade,  pronounced  his  conduct  illegal  and  censurable. 
The  queen  removed  him,  though  he  was  her  cousin,  and 
his  creditors  threw  him  into  prison  at  New  York.  But 
he  presently  succeeded  to  the  earldom  of  Clarendon,  and 
the  privilege  of  peerage  discharged  him  from  custody. 
Lord  Lovelace,  appointed  his  successor,  died  shortly  after 
arriving,  and  the  administration  again  passed  into  the 
hands  of  Ingolsby  as  lieutenant  governor. 

When  Dudley  arrived  to  assume  the  government  of  1702. 
Massachusetts,  he  found  Stoughton  recently  dead,  and  the    June' 
administration  in  the  hands  of  the  counselors,  several  of 
whom  had  concurred  in  his  imprisonment  at  the  time  of 
the  insurrection  against  Andros.      At  the1  next  election  1703. 
Dudley  evinced  his  remembrance  of  the  past  by  rejecting    May' 
five  out  of  the  twenty -eight  chosen  counselors — a -pre- 
rogative hitherto  exercised  only  once,  by  Phipps  in  the 
case  of  Cooke.      Cooke  and  his  fellow-agent  Oakes,  who 
still  retained,  as  leaders  of  the  old  theocratic  party,  a 
great  influence  in  the  province,  were  both  now  rejected. 
Dudley  soon  quarreled  also  with  the  Mathers,  the  cleri- 
cal leaders  of  that  same  party,  which,  down  to  this  mo- 
ment, notwithstanding  the  revocation  of  the  old  charter, 
had  been,  in  fact,  dominant  in  the  affairs  of  Massachu-     . 
setts.     But  that  domination  was  now  to  cease. 

A  new  school  of  divines,  known  as  Latitudinarians, 
sprung  up  among  the  Protestants  toward  the  conclusion 
of  the  previous  century,  had  essayed  the  delicate  task  of 
reconciling  reason  with  revelation.  They  not  only  re- 
jected the  authority  of  tradition,  so  highly  extolled  and 
implicitly  relied  upon  by  the  Catholics  and  the  English 


'250  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  High  Churchmen;  they  scouted,  also,  that  special  in- 
'  terior  persuasion  which  the  Puritans,  after  'the  early 
1703.  Reformers,  had  denominated  faith,  but  which  to  these 
reasoning  divines  seemed  no  better  than  enthusiasm. 
They  preferred  to  rest  the 'truth  of  Christianity  on  the 
testimony  of  prophecy  and  miracles,  of  which  they  un- 
dertook to  establish  the  reality  by  the  application  to 
the  Bible  history  of  the  ordinary  rules  of  evidence,  by 
which  same  rules  they  undertook  to  establish,  also,  the 
authenticity  and  inspiration  of  the  Bible  itself.  The 
recent  organization  of  a  fourth  church  at  Boston,  that  of 
Brattle-  Street,  on  the  express  principle  of  not  requiring 
any  public  relation  of  religious  experience,  indicated  that 
these  Latitudinarian.  ideas  were  penetrating  even  into 
New  England.  That  church,  with  Colman,  their  min- 
ister, '  professed,  indeed,  to  adhere  to  the  Westminster 
Confession,  and  strenuously  denied  the  unpopular  charge 
of  Latitudinarianism.  '  Yet,  in  conjunction  with  Stod- 
dard,  of  North ampton,  and  some  other  ministers  and 
churches,  they  presently  pushed  the  principle  of  the  half- 
way covenant  so  far  as  to  grant  to  all  persons  not  im- 
moral in  their  lives  admission  to  the  Lord's  Supper ;  in- 
deed,  all  the  privileges  of  full  church  membership.  Much 
to  the  mortification  of  the  Mathers,  who  wrote  and  pro- 
tested against  this  doctrine,  the  college  at  Cambridge 
presently  passed  under  the  control  of  the  new  party — a 
Change  not  without  important  results  on  the  intellectual 
History  of  New  England.  Dudley  rather  favored  these 
Latitudinarian  divines,  but  he  was  not  governed  by  them ; 
sand,  under  his  administration,  the  pretensions  of  the  min- 
',  Isters  to  advise  and  control  the  executive  and  the  Legis- 
lature came  to  a  total  and  final  «nd. 

The  Mathers  and  others  engaged  in  intrigues,  not  al- 
ways very  creditable,  to  procure  Dudley's  removal.    He, 


MASSACHUSETTS  AND  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 


25,1 


XXII. 


tod,  intrigued  to  create  a  party  in  his  favor.  But  his  CHAPTER 
enemies  had  an  overwhelming  majority  in  the  General 
Court ;  and,  during  the  earlier  years  of  Dudley's  admin-  1703. 
istration,  his  unpopularity  was  excessive.  The  repre-  , 
sentatives  seemed,  indeed,  to  make  it  a  point  to  reject 
every  thing  which  he-  proposed.  He  was  instructed  to 
procure  a  permanent  salary  for  himself  and  the  judges 
— not  only  was  this  refused,  but  even  an  annual  salary 
was  very  grudgingly  bestowed.  The  governor,  however, 
sustained  himself  with  firmness  ;  and  he  found  an  able 
supporter  in  his  son  Paul,  educated  to  the  law  in  the 
Temple  at  London,  and  now  appointed  attorney  general. 
Paul  wrote,  however,  that '  Massachusetts  was  a  very 
poor  place  for  "  gentlemen  ;"  meaning  those  who  wished 
to  grow  rich  on  the  labors  of  others. 

Dudley's  commission,  like  that  of  his  predecessor,  ex- 
tended to  New  Hampshire  also.  The  Assembly  of  that 
province,  anxious  to  secure  favor  in  the  pending  contro- 
versy about  quit-rents,  readily  voted,  in  conformity  with 
the  royal  request,  a  fixed  salary  to  the  governor.  But  to 
Usher,  the  lieutenant  governor,  they  would  grant  nothing. 

At  the  close  of  the  late  war,  there  had  remained  in 
the  whole  of  Maine  and  Sagadahoc  only  four  inhabited 
towns.  Others  had  been  reoccupied,  and  industry  was 
resuming  its  course,  when  the  breaking  out  of  the  new 
war  with  France  excited  new  apprehensions.  Earnest 
efforts  were  made  to  keep  the  Eastern  Indians  quiet. 
Dudley  undertook  a  progress  as  far  east  as  Pemaquid  to  1703. 
renew  the  treaties.  But  a  band  of  unprincipled  colonists 
presently  attacked  and  plundered  the  half-breed  son  of 
the  Baron  Castin,  who  dwelt  on  the  Penobscot,  and  had  i 
succeeded  there  to  some  share  of  his  father's  influence. 
In  consequence  of  this  outrage,  before  long  hostilities 
were  renewed. 


HIjSTORY    OP   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  The  broken  remnants  of  those  Eastern  tribes,  whose 
____  vicinity  to  the  English  had  exposed  them  most,  were  col- 
1704.  lected  by  the  French,  and  established  in  two  villages, 
Becancour  and  St.  Francis,  on  two  rivers  of  the  same 
names,  flowing  from  the  south  into  the  St.  Lawrence. 
Here  they  had  chapels  and  priests.  Religious  zeal  and 
the  remembrance  of  -  exile  inflamed  their  natural  apti- 
tude for  war.  They  were  always  ready  for  expeditions 
against  the  frontiers  of  New  England,  against  which,  in 
consequence  of  the  truce  with  the  Five  Nations,  the 
whole  force  of  Canada  was  now  directed. 

With  two  hundred  Canadians  and  a  hundred  and  fifty 
Indians,  Hertelle  de  Rouville,  descending  along  the  Con- 
March,  necticut,  approached  Deerfield,  then  the  northwestern 
frontier  town  of  New  England.  Like  the  other  frontier 
villages,  it  was  inclosed  by  a  palisade ;  but  the  sentinels 
slept,  and  high  snow-drifts  piled  against  the  inclosure 
made  entrance  easy.  Why  repeat  a  story  of  monoto- 
nous horrors  ?  The  village  was  burned  ;  forty-seven  of 
the  inhabitants  were  slain ;  the  minister  and  his  family, 
with  upward  of  a  hundred  others,  were  carried  into  cap- 
tivity. Dread  and  terror  seized  the  inhabitants  of  Mas- 
sachusetts. The  whole  of  their  extended  northern  fron- 
tier was  liable  to  similar  attacks.  They  were  exposed 
alone  to  the  whole  brunt  of  the  war.  A  reward  of  $66 
was  offered  for  Indian  prisoners  under  ten  years  of  age, 
and  twice  as  much  for  older  prisoners,  or  for  scalps — 
premiums  afterward  variously  modified  and  considerably 
increased.  Thus  stimulated,  the  colonial  rangers  were 
soon  able  to  rival,  and  presently  to  surpass,  the  Indians 
in  the  endurance  of  cold  and  fatigue,  and  to  follow  up  a 
trial  with  equal  sagacity.  Yet  so  shy  and  scattered  were 
these  lurking  enemies,  and  so  skilled  in  all  the  arts  of 
that  skulking  warfare  which  they  practiced,  that  each 


*&&  *•  • 

Hr  • , 


SECOND  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR. 

Indian  scalp  taken  during  this  war  was  estimated  to  CHAPTER 
have  cost  the  colony  upward  of  £1000,  $3333.      The     XXU 
barbarizing  influence  of  such  a  struggle  was  even  more  1704. 
to  be  deprecated  than  its  cost  and  its  miseries.      Some 
of  the  Connecticut  Indians  were  employed  as  auxiliaries, 
but  they  seemed  to  have  lost  their  warlike  spirit.  i 

The  veteran  Church,  so  soon  as  he  heard  of  the  burn- 
ing of  Deerfield,  mounted  his  horse  and  rode  seventy 
miles  to  offer  his  services  to  Governor  Dudley.  He  was 
soon  dispatched  with  six  hundred  men  against  the  French  June, 
establishments  at  Penobscot  and  the  eastward.  When  it 
came  out,  however,  that  Church  had  orders  not  to  at- 
tack Port  Royal,  advantage  was  taken  in  the  General 
Court  to  raise  a  great  outcry.  Some  of  the  governor's 
enemies  even  insinuated  that  he  wished  to  spare  a  town 
with  which  some  of  his  mercantile  friends  in  Boston  car- 
ried on,  as  was  alleged,  a  profitable  though  illegal  traffic. 

The  governor  of  New  France,  at  Dudley's  request,  read-  1705. 
ily  agreed  to  an  exchange  of  prisoners.  He  even  propos- 
ed a  suspension  of  hostilities ;  but  the  General  Court  of 
Massachusetts,  in  hopes  of  an  expedition  from  England 
for  the  conquest  of  Canada,  refused  its  assent.  Dudley, 
however,  protracted  the  negotiation,  and  boasted  of  the 
security  which  the  province  thus  enjoyed. 

During  this  intermission  of  hostilities,  a  vessel  sent  to 
Port  Royal  to  carry  out  the  exchange  of  prisoners  became 
a  source  of  great  excitement.  It  was  alleged  that  mili- 
tary stores  were  privately  shipped  at  the  same  time,  and 
it  was  even  insinuated  that  Dudley  shared  the  profits. 
Four  Boston  merchants,  implicated  in  this  affair,  were 
presently  arrested  on  the  charge  of  treasonable  corre- 
spondence and  trade  with  the  enemy.  Alleging  that  the 
Superior  Court  had  no  jurisdiction,  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives took  up  the  matter,  and  passed  six  several  acts 


'254  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  inflicting  fines  and  imprisonment  on  the  offenders.    These 
_aota?  however,  were  presently  set  aside  in  England  as 

1705.  an  illegal  stretch  of  power ;  and  even  his  enemies  in  the 
General  Court  saw  fit  to  disclaim  the  insinuations  which 
had  been  freely  thrown  out  against  Dudley. 

Charges  of  connivance  with  the  enemy  were  not  con- 
fined to  Boston.  The  Dutch  of  Albany  were  accused 
of  purchasing  plunder  of  the  Indians,  selling  them  arms 
and  powder,  and  allowing  war  parties  from  Canada  to 
pass  undisturbed  through  their  neighborhood.  But  this 
charge  did  not  extend  to  Major  Schuyler,  who  was  al- 
ways prompt  to  give  warning  of  danger,  and  whose  warn- 
ings, had  they  been  regarded,  might  have  saved  Deerfield 
from  destruction.  He  even  labored,  and  not  altogether 
without  success,  to  persuade  the  Christian  Mohawks  of 
Cagnawaga  to  forego  their  war  parties  against  the  fron- 
tiers of  New  England. 

Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut,  though-  covered  by  the 
intervening  territory  of  Massachusetts,  were  less  ready 
than  the  people  of  Massachusetts  desired  to  contribute 
to  carry  on  the  war.  A  school  for  the  education  of  min- 
isters, the  embryo  of  what  •  afterward  became  Yale  Col- 

1701.  lege,  had  been  established  at  Saybrook.  As  to  the  peo- 
ple of  Rhode  Island,  they  gave,  as  yet,  little  heed  to 
ministers,  schools,  or  colleges.  Cotton  Mather  describes 
them  as  "  a  generation  pf  libertines,  familists,  Antino- 
mians,  and  Quakers,  whose  posterity,  for  want  of  schools 
and  a  public  ministry,  are  become  so  barbarous  as  not  to 
be  capable  either  of  good  English  or  good  sense."  But 
this  testimony,  from  so  interested  a  witness,  is  to  be  re- 
ceived with  some  grains  of  allowance. 

1703.  That  colony  was  now  divided  into  two  counties,  Rhode 
Island  and  Providence.  Some  progress  was  also  made 
toward  the  settlement  of  the  boundary  dispute  with  Con- 


RHODE   ISLAND  AND   CONNECTICUT.  235 

necticut,  but  after  long  negotiations  the"  arrangement  fell  CHAPTER 
through,  and  the  quarrel  revived.     These  colonies  found         / 
zealous  and  active  enemies  in  Dudley  and  Cornbury.  1704. 
Dudley,  like  Phipps,  and  Cornbury,  like  Fletcher,  had 
royal  commissions  to  command  the  militia,  the  one  of 
Rhode  Island,  the  other  of  Connecticut ;  but  any  obedi- 
ence to  these  commissions  was  refused,  and  with  good 
reason,  since  it  had  once  already  been  decided,  after  ar- 
gument, that  the  crown  had  no  right  to  grant  such  com- 
missions.    Cornbury  alleged  a  that  Rhode  Island  and 
Connecticut  hate  every  body  that  owes  any  subjection 
to  the  queen."      It  was  even  proposed  to  place  these,  re- 
publican colonies  under  a  royal  governor  during  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  war  ;   but,  after  hearing  counsel  against 
it,  this  project  was  laid  aside.      The  Connecticut  Assem- 
bly having  neglected  to  repeal  the  old  law  against  Quak- 
ers, it  was  declared  void  by  a  royal  order  in  council.    ,On  1705. 
the  recommendation  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  a  new  bill  1706. 
for  regulating  the  chartered  colonies  was  introduced  into 
Parliament.     But  the  doctrine  of  vested  rights  had  made 
such  progress  among  the  Whigs,  that  the  revocation  of 
charters  seemed  too  great  a  stretch  of  power. 

After  the  death  of  Fitz-John  Winthrop,  Gurdon  Sal-  1707. 
tonstall,  minister  of  New  London,  great-grandson  of  Sir 
Richard  Saltonstall,  was  chosen  governor  of  Connecticut, 
and  he  continued  for  seventeen  years  to  be  annually  re- 
elected.  This  was  a  great  innovation  upon  the  original 
institutions  of  New  England,  according  to  which  not 
only  ministers,  but  even  ruling  elders,  were  disqualified 
to  hold  civil  offices.  Saltonstall  warmly  supported  the 
Saybrook  platform,  a  scheme  of  church  polity  drawn  up 
by  a  colonial  synod,  and  approved  by  the  Assembly. 
"  Consociations"  of  ministers,  first  introduced  by  this 
platform,  brought  the  ecclesiastical  constitution  of  Con- 


256  HISTO&Y    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  uecticut  into  close  resemblance  to  Presbyterianism — a 

XXII. 

system  favored,  indeed,  by  the  Latituclinarians,  as  dimin- 

1708.  ishiiig  the  influence  of  uninstmcted  and  bigoted  church 
members,  and  giving  to  the  intelligent  and  educated  few 
a  greater  weight  in  church  affairs. 

The  judiciary  system  of  Massachusetts  and  New  York 
was  partially  imitated  in  Connecticut  by  transferring  to 
1711.  a  Superior  Court  of  five  judges  the  judicial  authority 
hitherto  exercised  by  the  assistants.  These  judges,  how- 
ever, instead  of  being  appointed  by  the  executive,  were 
annually  chosen  by  the  Assembly. 

The  boundary  between  Massachusetts  and  Connecti- 
cut, as  run  in  1642,  instead  of  keeping  due  west,  devi- 
ated considerably  to  the  south.  The  line  was  now  run 
anew  by  mutual  consent,  and  was  established  as  at  pres- 
ent, with  this  exception,  that  the  towns  of  Woodstock, 
Suffield,  and  Enfield,  though  they  fell  south  of  the  new 
line,  yet,  having  been  settled  under  the  jurisdiction  of 
Massachusetts,  were  suffered  to  remain  a  part  of  that 
proyince,  Connecticut  receiving  an  equal  quantity  of  wild 
lands  in  Massachusetts,  which  were  sold,  and  the  pro- 
ceeds given  to  the  new  college.  The  revolt  of  these  three 
towns  from  the  Massachusetts  jurisdiction  will  be  men- 
tioned in  a  subsequent  chapter. 

Connecticut  was  much  and  long  annoyed  by  a  pro- 
tracted law-suit,  commenced  by  Samuel  Mason,  great- 
'  grandson  of  Major  Mason,  the  hero  of  the  Pequod  War, 
to  recover,  on  behalf  of  the  Mohegan  Indians,  for  whom 
the  Mason  family  acted  as  guardians,  certain  land,  of 
which  the  jurisdiction  only,  it  was  alleged  had  been 
ceded  by  the  original  proprietors,  though  Connecticut 
had  undertaken  to  make  grants  of  it.  This  law-suit  was 
promoted  by  Dudley,  who  thus  became  as  unpopular  in 
Connecticut  as  he  was  in  Massachusetts.  Carried  by 


NAVAL  STORES^COLONIAL  CURRENCY.  ^  ^  5.7 

'  i      .V 

appeal  before  the  king  in  council,  it  was  kept  in  litiga-  CHAPTER 
tion  down  almost  to  the  Revolution.  • |_1 

Newport,  now  rising  to  mercantile  importance,  was  1710. 
described  by  the  Board  of  Trade  "  as  a  kind  of  free  port, 
whence  great  quantities  of  goods  are  sent  to  other  colo- 
nies."    Rice,  and  other  "  enumerated  articles,"  obtained 
in  exchange  for  these  goods,  were  brought  to  Newport ,- 
and  thence  smuggled  to  Portugal  and  other  European 
countries.    •' 

The  English  supply  of  naval  stores,  of  which  the  .Wai- 
occasioned  a  great  consumption  beyond  the  ordinary  de- 
mand, had  long  been  drawn  from  Norway  and  Sweden. 
A  mercantile  company  in  those  countries  having  obtained 
a  monopoly  of  those  articles,  the  consequent  enhancement 
of  prices  suggested  the  idea  of  encouraging  their  produc-  , 
tion  in  America.  Thus  was  again  revived,  and  with  bet- 
ter success,  one  of  the  branches  of  industry  attempted  in 
the  early  settlement  of  Virginia.  An  act  of  Parliament  1704. 
offered  premiums  on  the  importation  from  America  of 
masts,  tar,  and  rosin.  At  the  same  time,  the  cutting 
down  was  prohibited,  in  New  England,  New  York,  and 
New  Jersey,  of  any  pine  trees  fit  for  masts,  or  for  the 
manufacture  of  tar  or  pitch,  growing  on  any  uninclosed 
lands.  This  law  encountered  great  resistance  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  New  Hampshire,  and  additional  acts  became  1710. 
necessary  to  modify  and  enforce  it. 

The  Board  of  Trade  had  early  complained  of  the  di-  .  ' 
versity  which  existed  in  the  colonies  in  the  moneys  of 
account,  and  of  the  various  rates  at  which  the  Spanish 
coins,  which  formed  the  principal  circulation,  passed  cur- 
rent in  different  places.  An  idea  prevailed  that  coin 
might  be  kept  in  the  country  by  enhancing  its  nominal 
value ;  and  this  value  was  still  further  increased  by  the 
depreciation  of  the  circulating  bills  of  credit.  A  royal 
TL— R 


258  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITtfD   STATES. 

CHAPTER  proclamation  established  for  all  the  colonies  the  old  New 
.-  ...  England  standard^  by  fixing  the  value  of  the  dollar  at  six 
1704  shillings;  and  this  proclamation  was  presently  reinforced 
170 7.  by  an  a,ct  of  Parliament,  inflicting  penalties  of  fine  and 
imprisonment  on  such  as  disregarded  it.     But  this  regu- 
lation of  the  currency  was  evaded  in  some  colonies,  and 
openly  disregarded  in  others  ;   and,  before  long,  the  circu- 
lating medium  Vas  thrown  into  still  greater  confusion  by 
new  issues  of  paper  money.      The  rate,  however,  of  six 
shillings  to  the  dollar  remained  the  legal  standard,  known 
in  several  of  the  colonies  as  "  proclamation  money." 

Another  act  of  Jhe  same  year,  intended  to  encourage 
the  American  'trade,  and  particularly  the  fitting  out  of 
privateers  in  America,  prohibited  impressments  in  the 
colonial  ports  and  waters,  unless  of  such  sailors  as  had 
previously  deserted  from  ships  of  war. 

1706.  When  it  became  evident  that  Massachusetts  had  no 
;,         intention  to  accept  his  proffered  truce,,  the  governor  of 

New  France  had  renewed  the  war.  As  a  means  of  flat- 
tering ^his  Indian  allies,  and  of  attracting  attention  to- 
ward Canada,  he  sent  to  Paris  a  noted  Indian  warrior, 
who  was  received  at  court  with  much  ceremony. 

Dudley's  messengers  to  negotiate  an  exchange  of  pris- 
oners had  spied  out  the  weakness  of  Canada;   and,  in 
consequence  of  Dudley's  assurance  that  with  four  ships 
,  he  could  conquer  New  France,  the  English  government 

1707.  had  promised  an  armament.      But  the  loss  of  the  battle 
of  Almanza,  which  restored  to  the  Bourbons  the  posses- 
sion of  Madrid,  from  which  they  had  been  temporarily 
driven  by  the  arms  of  Peterborough,  deranged  the  plans 
of  the  English  ministry,  and  detained  the  promised  troops. 

.New  England,  unassisted,  was  more  than  a  match  for 
Acadie,  and  Dudley  hdped,  by  the  conquest  of  that  prov- 
ince', to  put  a  stop  to  the  annoying  and  expensive  war 


SECOND  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR. 


259 


on  the  eastern  frontier.      Connecticut  declined  to  join  in  CHAPTER 

"•    *  '  X  \  I T 

this  enterprise  ;   but  Rhode  Island  and  New  Hampshire       ' 
both  assisted,  and  issued  their  first  bills  of  credit  to  raise  1707. 
the  means.     A  thousand  men,  under  Colonel  March,  es-       i   »  • 
corted  to  Port  Royal  by  an  English  frigate,  entered  the 
river  and  landed  before  the  town.      They  had  no  can- 
non, except  light  artillery,  and  as  the  fort  was  too  strong' 
to  be    carried  by   assault,  they  solaced  themselves  by 
destroying  the   settlement.      They  burned  the   houses, 
killed  the  cattle,  and  drowned  the  corn  by  cutting  the 
dams  which  protected  the  rich  flats  along  Port  Royal 
River.     Had  an  English  colony  sustained  such  losses, 
such  was  the  boast  of  the  engineer,  it  would  have  thought 
itself  utterly  ruined.      Not  satisfied  with  this  havoc,  they 
proceeded  to  make  a  general  ravage  of  the  coast  of  Aca- 
die.    At  Casco  Bay,  on  their  way  home,  they  were  met  by 
a  committee  of  the  Massachusetts  General  Court,  sent  to 
lead  them  back  to  Port  Royal.      But  the  citadel  defied     Aug. 
all  their  efforts,  and  the  forces,  wasted  by  disease,  were 
obliged  a  second  time  to  abandon  the  enterprise. 

Next  year  the  Indian  ravages  became  more  alarming  1708,. 
than  ever.  The  very  neighborhood  of  Boston  was  threat- 
ened. Hertelle  de  Rouville,  again  descending  from  Can- 
ada, this  time  by  the  valley  of  the  Merrimac,  attacked 
Haverhill,  the  frontier  town  on  that  river,  scarcely  yet 
recovered  from  the  ravages  of  the  former  war.  Hav- 
ing piously  prayed  together,  De  Rouville  and  his  Indians 
rushed  into  the  town  about  an  hour  before  sunrise.  The 
houses  were  plundered  and  set  on  fire ;,  forty  or  fifty  of 
the  inhabitants  were  slain,  some  of  them  perishing  in  the 
flames  of  the  houses ;  as  many  more,  taken  prisoners, 
were  carried  off  to  Canada.  Hotly  pursued  from  the. 
neighboring  towns,  the  assailants  were  obliged  to  fight 
shortly  after  leaving  Haverhill,  yet,  with  the  loss  of 


260  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  some^  of  their  prisoners,  they  succeeded  in  making  good 
.         their  retreat. 

1708.  .  Alarmed  at  this  new  specimen  of  French  and  Indian 
enterprise,  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  called  the 
queen's  attention  to  the  "  consuming  war"  in  which  they 
had  been   engaged,  now  little   short  of  twenty  years. 
They  begged  her  commands  to  the  Mohawks  to  fall  upon 
the  French,  and  her  assistance  to  conquer  Canada  and 
Acadie. 

Vetch,  a  Boston  merchant,  one  of  the  late  commis- 
sioners to  Quebec  to  treat  for  the  exchange  of  prisoners, 
who  had  taken  that  opportunity  to  make  soundings  of 
the  channel  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  was  sent  to  England  to 

1709,  press  this  request.      He  came  back  with  the  promise  of 
Apnl     a  fleet  and  army,  news  which,  in  spite  of  the  opposition 

of  the  traders  of  Albany,  who  carried  on  a  gainful  com- 
merce with  Canada,  excited  in  New  York  as  well  as 
New  England  the  greatest  enthusiasm.  Ingolsby,  lieu- 
tenant governor  of  New  York,  took  care  to  keep  the 
Assembly  in  good  humor  by  resigning  into  their .  hands 
'the  appointment  of  officers,  and  the  regulation,  by  a 
committee,  of  the  commissary  department.  JFive  hund- 
red men  were  raised ; ,  provisions  were  promised  for  the 
troops  of  the  other  colonies  expected  to  co-operate ;  and 
.bills  of  credit,  for  the  first  time  in  New  York,  were  is- 
sued to  pay  the  expense.  To  provide  means  for  equip- 
ping their  quotas,  Connecticut  and  New  Jersey,  equally 
zealous,  now  also  issued  their  first  paper  money. 

This  enthusiasm  did  not  extend  to  Pennsylvania 
Called  upon  by  Governor  Gookin  to  contribute  a  hund- 
red and  fifty  soldiers,  the  Quaker  Legislature  protested, 
"with  all  humility,"  that  "they  could  not,  in  conscience, 
provide  money  to  hire  men  to  kill  each  other."  Out. of 
their  dutiful  attachment  to  the  queen,  in  spite  of  their 


SECOND  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.    •'  261 

scruples,  they  tendered  her  a  present  of  ^£500  :  but  this  CHAPTER 

"vxiT 

pittance  Gookin  refused  to  accept.  •'-.•*'. 

The  plan  of  campaign  devised  twenty  years  before,  1709. 
by  Leisler  and  Phipps  was  now  , again  revived.  '  The 
four  Eastern  clans  of  the  Iroquois  had  been  persuaded 
to  raise  the  hatchet.  The  quotas  of  Connecticut,  New 
York,  and  New  Jersey,  with  four  independent  compa- 
nies of  a  hundred  men  each,  the  regular  garrison  of  New 
York,  amounting  in  the  whole  to  one  thousand  five  hund- 
red men,  were  assembled  at  Wood  Creek,  near  the  head 
of  Lake  Champlain,  for  an  attack  on  Montreal.  The 
command  of  these  troops  was  given  by  the  contributing 
Assemblies  to  Nicholson,  bred  an  army  officer,  an  old 
official,  a  man  of  very  active  disposition,  whom  we  have 
seen  sucessively  governor  of  New  York,  of  Maryland, 
and  of  Virginia,  and  whose  former  zeal  in  urging  a  grant 
by  Virginia  for  the  defense  of  New  York  was  now  grate- 
fully remembered. 

Another  army  of  twelve  hundred  men,  the  quotas  of 
Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  and  Rhode  Island,  des- 
tined to  operate  against  Quebec,  anxiously  awaited  at 
Boston  the  arrival  of  the  promised  British  fleet.  But 
new  disasters  in  Spain  again  diverted  this  expected  aid ; 
and  all  these  expensive  preparations,  by  far  the  greatest 
yet  made  in  the  British  colonies,  fell  fruitless  to  the 
ground. 

The  governors  of  the  colonies  concerned  in  this  enter- 
prise met  at  Boston,  and  Nicholson  and  Vetqh  carried 
to  England  their  solicitations  and  complaints.  Schuyler, 
of  Albany,  who  exercised  a  great  influence  over  the  Mo- 
hawks, imitated  the  policy  of  the  governor  of  Canada, 
by  taking  with  him  to  England  five  Mohawk  warriors. 
Tricked  out  in  scarlet  cloaks,  borrowed  from  the  ward- 
robe of  a  London  theater,  these,  savages  attracted  a  large  - 


262  HISTORY  OK  THE   UNITED   STATES.    , 

CHAPTER  share  of  public  attention.      The  «  Tatler"  and  "  Specta- 

'  XXII  '  f 

__tor,"  then  in  the  course  of  publication,  make  several  al- 

1710.  lusions  to  them.; 

.  July.  ^Nicholson  and  Vetch  returned  the  next  summer  with 
two  ships  of  war  and  five  hundred  marines.  Connecti- 
cut and  New  Hampshire  each  raised  a  regiment ;  two 
regiments  were  contributed  by  Massachusetts ;  and  Nich- 
olson and  Vetch,  with  twenty  New  England  transports, 
sailed  to  attack  Port  Royal.  The  French  garrison,  feeble 
and  mutinous,  surrendered  as  soon  as  the  siege  was  form- 
ed. By  the  terms  of  the  capitulation,  the  inhabitants, 
within  a  circuit  of  three  miles,  upon  taking  an  oath  of 
allegiance  to  England,  were  to  be  protected  for  two  years, 
and  were  to  have  that  period  to  dispose  of  their  property. 
The  miserable  inhabitants  of  the  other  districts  in  vain 
solicited  the  same  terms.  They  were  treated  as  prison- 
ers at  discretion ;  their  property  was  plundered  ;  it  was 
even  proposed  to  drive  them  from  their  homes  "  unless 
they  would  turn  Protestants."  A  message  was  sent  to 
the  governor  of  Canada,  that  if  he  did  not  put  a  stop  to 
the  Indian  parties  against  the  frontiers  of  New  England, 
any  cruelties  which  they  might  inflict  should  be  retort- 
ed on  the  unhappy  Acadiens.  Such  conduct  was  little 
calculated  to  secure  quiet  possession  of  the  province ; 
and  Vetch,  left  at  Port  Royal  with  four  hundred  men^ 
soon  found  himself  invested  by  the  Acadiens  and  the 
Indians. 

NeaPs  patent  for  colonial  posts  having  expired,  an 
act  of  Parliament  extended  the  British  post-office  systern 
to  America.  A  chief  office  was  established  at  New, York, 
to  which  letters  were  to  be  conveyed  by  regular  packets 
across  the  Atlantic.  The  same  act  regulated  the  rates 
of  postage  to  be  paid  in  the  plantations,  exempted  the 
posts  -from  ferriage,  and  enabled  post-masters  to  recover 


GERMANS  IN   AMERICA.  263 


their  dues  by  summary  process.     A  line  of  posts  was  CHAPTER 

presently  established  on  Neal's  old  routes,  north  to  the !_. 

Piscataqua,  and  south  to  Philadelphia,  irregularly  ex-  1710. 
tended,  a  few  years  after,  to  Williamsburg,  in  Virginia, 
the  post  leaving  Philadelphia  for  the  south  as  often  as 
letters  enough  were  lodged  to  pay  the  expense.  The 
postal  communication  subsequently  established  with  the 
Carolinas  was  still  more  irregular. 

The  successor  of  Lovelace  as  governor  of  New  York 
was  Robert  Hunter,  whose  unsuccessful  attempt  to  reach 
Virginia  has  been  already  mentioned.  A  Scotsman  by 
birth,  Hunter  had  commenced  life  as  a  runaway  appren- 
tice and  a  common  soldier.  He  had  risen,  however,  to 
military  rank ;  by  his  literary  taste  and  accomplish- 
ments,  had  gained  the  friendship  of  Addison  and  Swift ; 
by  his  good  looks  and  insinuating  manners,  the  hand  of 
a  peeress ;  and  by  her  interest  an  appointment,  first  to 
Virginia,  and  then  to  New  York. 

The  ravages  of  military  operations  in  Europe  had 
driven  from  their  homes  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  a 
large  number  of  unhappy  Germans,  many  of  whom  had 
sought  refuge  in  England.  Three  thousand  of  these  fu- 
gitives were  sent  out  with  Hunter  to  be  settled  on  the 
banks  of  the  Hudson,  under  indentures  to  serve  the  queen 
as  "  grateful  subjects  in  the  production  of  tar5"  their  ex- 
penses, to  the  amount  of  £10,000,  being  paid  by  a  par- 
liamentary grant.  A  supply  of  naval  stores  for  the 
queen's  dock-yards  was  hoped  from  this  arrangement. 
These  Germans,  contrasting  their  situation  with  that 
of  the  free  settlers  around  them,  soon  grew  so  dissatis- 
fied that  Hunter  was  obliged  to  use  force  to  compel  them  , 
to  submit.  The  experiment  proved  a  failure ;"  their 
subsistence  for  several  years  cost  £20,000  beyond  all 
the  produce  of  their  labor.  When,  at  length,  their  in- 


2(34  HISTORY- OF  THE 

CHAPTER  'dentures  were  canceled,  they  soon  became  thriving  and 

XXII.  . 

industrious.     It  was  by  them  that  the  first  settlements 

1710.  were  made  in  the  Valley  of  the  Schoharie,  and  on  the 
upper  waters  of  the  Mohawk  at  the  fertile  German  Flats. 

A  still  larger  number  of  these  German  exiles  found 
refuge  in  Pennsylvania,  to  which  colony  also  many  were 
carried  as  indented  servants.  Another  body  of  them  was 
'  sent  to  North  Carolina  by  the  proprietaries  of  that  prov- 
ince. It  was  this  immigration  which  first  introduced 
into  America,  compact  bodies  of  German  settlers,  and 
along  with  them  the  dogmas  and  worship  of  the  German 
Lutheran  and  German  Reformed  Churches.  Constantly 
supplied  with  new  recruits,  and  occupying  contiguous 
tracts  of  territory,  these  immigrants  preserved  and  have 
transmitted  to  our  day,  especially  in  Pennsylvania,  the 
German  language  and  German  manners.  Their  indus- 
tty  was  remarkable  ;  they  took  care  to  settle  on  fertile 
lands,  and  they  soon  became  distinguished  as  the  best 
farmers  in  America. 

In  the  new  Assembly  which  Hunter  called,  seats  were 
secured  for  Lewis  Morris  and  others,  of  whose  support 
he  had  assured  himself.  Taught,  however,  by  past  ex- 
perience, in  spite  of  all  Hunter's  efforts,  the  Assembly 
tefused  to  renew  the  expired  seven  years'  revenue.  They 
would  grant  nothing  for  a  longer  term  than  a  single  year 
* — a  procedure  of  which  Hunter  and  the  Board  of  Trade 
complained  the  more  loudly,  since  the  queen  annually  Ex- 
pended £20,000  in  maintaining  troops  and  ships  for  the 
.defense  of  New  .York.  It  was  threatened  to  raise  a  rev- 

17 11.  enue  by  act  of  Parliament,  and  a  bill  was  drawn  for  that 
s  purpose.     But  intended  only  to  terrify,  it  was  not  press- 
ed3, and  four  successive  Assemblies  firmly  maintained  the 
policy  of  annual  grants.      Hunter  wrote  home  in  despair 

the  delegates  were  resolved  to  put  themselves  on  a 


SECOND  INTERCOLONIAL  WAU.       ...        265 
footing  with  the  chartered  colonies,  and  that  no  meas-  CHAPTER 

XXII 

ures  of  his  could  prevent  it.  .     .' 

Jeremiah  Dummer,  a  graduate  of  Harvard  and  Utrecht,  1710. 
grandson  of  Richard  Dummer,  the  founder  of  New- 
bury,  a  young  man  of  superior  abilities  and  accomplish- 
ments, unable  to  find  any  suitable  employment  at  home, 
had  gone  to  seek  his  fortune  in  London.  Appointed 
agent  for  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  he  presented 
a  memorial  to  the  queen,  Begging  her,  "  in  compassion  1711. 
to  her  plantations,  to  send  an  armament  against  Cana-  Jan- 
da,"  in  which  enterprise  he  represented  that  not  only 
Massachusetts,  but  other  provinces,  "  even  Virginia," 
would  be  ready  to  aid.  The  Tories,  under  Harley  and 
St..  John,  had  just  raised  themselves  to  power.  To  the 
surprise  of  the  colonists,  who  did  not  expect  from  a  Tory 
ministry  what  they  had  in  vain  solicited  from  the  Whigs, 
Nicholson,  who  had  gone  again  to  England,  returned 
with  the  news  that  a  large  fleet  and  army,  destined.  .June, 
against  Canada,  would  speedily  arrive.  St.  John  him- 
self had  undertaken  to  superintend  the  outfit.  The  com- 
mand of  the  troops  was  given  to  General  Hill,  brother 
of  that  Mrs.  Masham  to  whose  influence  with  the  queen 
the  ministers  were  greatly  indebted  for  office.  The  fleet 
was.  commanded  by  Sir  Hovenden  Walker,  who  gainecF, 
however,  no  laurels  from  this  expedition. 

Within  a  fortnight  after  Nicholson  had  given  the  first 
notice  of  what  was  intended,  a  fleet  of  fifteen  ships  of 
war,  with  forty  transports,  bringing  five  veteran  regi- 
ments of  Marlborough's  army,  arrived  at  Boston/  Here  June  24. 
they  were  detained  upward  of  a  month,  waiting  for  proV 
visions  and  the  colonial  auxiliaries.  The  want  of  notice 
caused  some  inevitable  delay ;  but  the  northern  colonies 
exerted  themselves  with  remarkable  promptitude  and 
vigor.  The  credit  of  the  Englisji  treasury,  broken  down 


HIS  T,ORY  OJTTH'E  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  by  a  long  and  expensive  war,  was  so  low  at  Boston  that 

nobody  would  purchase  bills  upon  it  without  an  endorse- 

1711.  ment,  Which  Massachusetts  furnished  in  the  shape  of 
bills  of  credit  to  the  amount  of  £40,000,  advanced  to 
the  merchants  who  supplied  provisions  to  the  fleet.  After 
a  delay  of  ^hlch  the  officers  loudly  complained,  the  ships 
July  30.  sailed  at  last  with  seven  thousand  men  on  board,  half 
/regulars  and  half  provincials. 

New  York  issued  £10,000  in  bills  of  credit  to  pay 
the  expense  of  her  share  of  the  enterprise,  taking  care, 
however,  to  deposit  the  money  in  the  hands  of  special, 
commissioners.  Pennsylvania,  under  the  name  of  a  pres- 
ent to  the  queen,  contributed  £2000,  but  none  of  the 
colonies  further  south  seem  to  have  taken  any  interest 
in  the  matter.  Some  fifteen  hundred  troops,  the  quotas 
of  Connecticut,  New  York,  and  New  Jersey,  again  placed 
under  the  command  of  Nicholson,  assembled  at  Albany 
for  an  attack  on  Montreal  simultaneously  with  that  on 
Quebec,  and  Nicholson's  camp  was  presently  joined  by 
eight  hundred  warriors  of  the  Five  Nations.  But  the 
advance  was  cut  short  by  news  of  the  failure  of  the  ex- 
pedition by  sea. 

As  the  fleet  was  proceeding  up  the  St.  Lawrence  dur- 
ing a  dark  and  stormy  night,  through  the  obstinacy  and 
.  negligence  of  Admiral  Walker,  eight  transports  were 
wrecked,  and  near  a  thousand  men  perished.  Dis- 
couraged at  this  disaster,  the  admiral  turned  about,  and, 
sending  home  the  colonial  transports,  sailed  direct  for 
England,  not  even  stopping  bjr  the  way,  as  his  instruc- 
tions had  indicated,  to  attack  the  French  posts. in  New- 
foundland. The  British  officers  concerned  in  the  expe- 
dition attempted  to  shift  off  on  the  colonists  the  blame 
of  this  failure.  1*  hey  alleged  "  the  interestedness,  the 
ill  nature,  and  sourness  of  these  people,  whose  hypocrisy 


DISTURBANCES  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA:    267 

and  canting  are  insupportable."      The  indignant  colo-  CHAPTER 
nists,  suspicious  of  the  Tory  ministry,  believed  that  the        > 
whole  enterprise  was  a  scheme  meant  to  fail,  and  spe-  1711. 
cially  designed  for  their  disgrace  and  impoverishment. 
Harley,  having  quarreled  with  his  colleagues,  denounced 
it  to  the  House  of  Commons  as  a  job  intended  to  put 
£20,000   into  the  pockets  of  St.  John  and  Harcourt. 
Nowhere  was  the  failure  of  this  enterprise  more  felt  than 
in  New  York.     A  war  with  the  Five  Nations  was  even 
apprehended.      That  confederacy  showed  a  strong  dispo- 
sition to  go  over  to  the  French.     An  invasion  by  sea 
was  feared.      To  crown  all,  the  province  was  frightened 
by  a  plot,  real  or  pretended,  on  the  part  of  the  slaves,  to  1712. 
burn  the  city,  for  which  nineteen  unhappy  victims  pres-    AP"1-. 
ently  suffered.     The  population  of  the  city  of  New  York, 
according  to  an  official  census,  amounted  at  this  time 
to  five  thousand  eight  hundred  and  forty. 

While  the  northern  provinces  were  busy  with  this  ex- 
pedition against  Canada,  North  Carolina  became  the  seat 
of  civil  commotions,  followed  presently  by  a  devastating 
Indian  war.      As  Deputy-governor  Gary  did  not  account ; 
for  quit-rents  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  proprietaries,  he-- 
had been  removed  from  office,  and  the  administration^  by  1708. 
the  choice  of  the  council,  had  devolved  on  Glover  as 
president.      But  Gary,    « being  joined,"    according    to 
Spotswood,    "  by  certain  Quakers  interested  in  the  ad- 
ministration, gathered  together  a  rabble  of  loose  people, 
and  by  force  of  arms  turned  out  the  president  and  most 
of  the  council."     Hyde,  a  -connection  of  the  Clarendon 
family,  was  sent  from  England  to  compose  these  differ-  1710. 
ences ;   but  Tynte,  governor  of  the  southern  province, 
by  whom  he  was  to  have  been  commissioned,  died  be-  • 
fore  his  arrival.     The  principal  inhabitants,  however,  and  ' 
even  Gary  himself,  requested  Hyde  to  assume  the  ad*     , 


268  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  ministration  as  president  till  he  could  receive  a  formal 

XJdmmission  ,as   governor.       A   new  Assembly   adopted 

1711.  violent  measures  against  Gary.  He  called  in  question 
March,  ^hejj.  authority,  again  proclaimed  himself  .governor,  and 
collected  several  armed  vessels  to  attack  Hyde  and  his 
council,  who  applied  to  Spotswood  for  aid.  Spotswood 
sent  an  agent  to'  compose  matters,  followed  by  a  few 
militia  and  marines  from  the  ships  of  war  stationed  in 
the  Chesapeake.  The  insurgent  governor,  with  some 
of  his  principal  adherents,  fled  westward  to  the  Indians, 
whom  they  were  accused,  though  probably  without  any 
grounds,  of  inciting  to  hostilities.  Presently  they  made 
their  appe'aranee  in  Virginia,  declaring  their  intention 
to  appeal  to  the -proprietaries.  They  were  arrested  by 
July.  Spotswood,  and  sent  to  England  for  trial.  But  the  ex- 
pense ef  a  prosecution,  it  was  feared,  might  "  ruin  the 
country ;"  and  though  denounced  by  the  re-established 
authorities  as  "  dangerous  incendiaries,"  they  were  suf- 
fered to  escape  for  want  of  evidence.  Indeed,  the  whole 
attention  of  the  province  was  speedily  engrossed  by  a  war 
with  the  Tuscaroras. 

A  body  of  German  emigrants,  recently  sent  out  by 
'  the  proprietaries,  had  established  themselves  on  the  south- 
ern bank  of  the  Neuse,  near  the  mouth  of  which  river 
s6me  Swiss  settlers  had  lately  planted  the  town  of  New 
Berne.  Enraged  at  this  new  trespass  on  their  lands, 
the  Tuscaroras  seized  Lawson,  the  surveyor  general  of 
the  province,  and,  having  discussed  the  matter  in  coun- 
Sept.  oil,  burned  him  at  the  stake-.  Graffenburg,  superintend- 
ent of  the  German  settlers,  taken  at  the  same  time,  rep- 
resented that  he  was  chief  of  another  tribe  distinct  from 
the  English,  and  recently  arrived  in  the  country,  and 
on  that  plea  was  dismissed,  after  promising  to  occupy 
no  more  Indian  lands. 


TUSCARORA  WAR.  269 

The  Tuscaroras  immediately  commenced  a  devastating  CHAPTER 

attack,  which  the  German  settlers  were  ill  able  to  resist. . 

The  Quakers,  who  were  numerous  in  North  Carolina,  1711.  . 
refused  to  bear  arms.  The  late  insurgents  were  still 
out  of  humor ;  and  Hyde  found  it  very  difficult  to  de- 
fend the  province.  Spotswood  was  destitute  of  means, 
having  just  dissolved  the  Virginia  Assembly  on  a  dis- 
agreement about  raising  supplies.  The  Legislature  of 
South  Carolina  voted  assistance  to  the  northern  province ; 
and  Governor  Craven  sent  Barnwell  to  their  aid  with  a 
small  force  of  colonial  militia  and  a  large  body  of  friendly 
Indians — Catawbas,  Yamassees,  Cherokees,  and  Creeks. 
Compelled  to  take  refuge  in  their  fort,  the  Tuscaroras  1712. 
soon  agreed  to  a  peace  ;  but,  as  the  South  Carolina  forces  January> 
retired,  they  fell  upon  several  unsuspecting  Indian  vil- 
lages, and  carried  off  the  inhabitants  to  sell  as  slaves— - 
an  odious  piece  of  ,treachery,  which  the  Tuscaroras  re- 
venged by  renewing  the  war.  The  yellow  fever  also 
made  its  appearance.  The  inhabitants  of  North  Caro- 
lina, in  distress  and  terror,  fled  in  numbers  from  the 
province.  Spotswood  stopped  and  sent  back  the  fugi- .  f 
tives ;  and,  having  obtained  from  a  new  Assembly  an , 
unwilling  vote  of  aid — for  there  was  na  love  between 
the  inhabitants  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina — heisent 
an  auxiliary  body  of  militia.  He  rendered  a  still  more 
effectual  service  by  taking  advantage  of  a  division 
among  the  Tuscaroras  to  negotiate  peace  with  a  part  of 
the  tribe.  . 

The  next  winter,  Moore,  son  of  the  former  governor  of  1713. 
that  name,  marche'd  from  South  Carolina  with  a  new  January- , 
force  of  forty  militia  and  eight  hundred  friendly  Indians, 
The  hostile  Tuscaroras  were  again  besieged,  and  their 
fort,  in  what  is  now  Greene  county,  was  taken,   and  Mar.  26. 
eight  hundred  prisoners  in  it.     These  prisoners,  claimed 


270    HISTORY  OF-THE  UNITED'STATES. 

CHAPTER  by  the  Indian  allies,  were  carried  off  to  South  Carolina 

XXII.         J 

___tb  be  sold; as  slaves—a  circumstance  which  explains  the 
1713.  facility  with  which  the  Indians  were  engaged  in  the  war. 
These  successes  were  vigorously  followed  up.     To  fur- 
nish means,  North  Carolina  issued  ^8000,  her  first  bills 
of  credit.      The  hostile  Tuscaroras  abandoned  their  coun- 

'.'..>•  '    '  •  I  '  V.  t       ' 

try,  and  retired  northward,  .through  the  unsettled  re- 
gions of  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania,  to  Lake  Oneida,  in 
the  country  of  the  Five  Nations.  Similarity  of  lan- 
guage indicated  an  origin  from  a  common  stock.  These 
fugitives  were  kindly  received,  and  presently  admitted  ay 
•a  sixth  tribe  into  that  famous  confederacy. 

The  export  of  Indian  slaves  from  Carolina  already  had 
been, 'and  now  again  became,  a  subject  of  complaint  in 
Pennsylvania.      The  importation  of  Indian  slaves  into 
that  province,  except  such  as  had  been  a  year  domiciled 
1705.  in  the  family  of  the  importer,  had  already  been  prohib- 
ited by  an  act,  especially  referring  to  this  Carolina  traf- 
fic  "'as  having  given  our  neighboring  Indians  of  this 
1712.  province  some  umbrage  for  suspicion  and  dissatisfaction." 
June,    j^  new  ao^  u  ^  preyed  the  importation  of  negroes  and 
.    slaves,"  alleging  plots  and  insurrections,  and  referring  in 
tertns  to  the  recent  plot  in  New  York,  imposed  a  pro- 
hibitory duty  of  ,£20  upon  all  negroes  and  Indians  brought 
intb  the  province  by  land  or  water,  a  drawback  to  be  al- 
lowed in  case  of  re-exportation  within  twenty  days.     In- 
dulgence was  also  to  be  granted  for  a  longer  time,  not  ex- 
ceeding six  months,  "  to  all  gentlemen  and  strangers  trav- 
'  eling  in  this  province  who  may  have  negro  or  Indian 
slaves  to  attend  them,  not  exceeding  two  for  one  person." 
Runaways  from  the  neighboring  provinces,  if  taken  back 
within  twenty  days  after  identification,  were  to  be  free  of 
duty  ;  otherwise,  or  if  not  claimed  within  twelve  months, 
they  were  to  be  sold,  and  the  proceeds  paid  into  the  treas- 


INDIAN  SLAVES  IN,  MA'S  SACHU  SETT  S. 


271 


ury,  the  owner  being  entitled  only  to  what  remained  aft-  CHAPTER 

er  paying  the  duty  and  expenses.     Very  large  powers 

were  given  to  the  collector  to  break  all  doors,  and  seize  1712. 

and  sell  all  slaves,  suspected  to  be  concealed  with  intent 

to  evade  the  duty.      This  act,  however,  within  a  few 

months  after  its  passage,  was  disallowed  and  repealed  by 

the  queen. 

A  Massachusetts  act  on  the  same  subject  recites  Aug. 
"  that  diverse  conspiracies,  outrages,  barbarities,  murders, 
burglaries,  thefts,  and  other  notorious,  crimes  and  enor- 
mities, at  sundry  times,  and  especially  of  late,  have  been 
perpetrated  and  committed  by  Indians  and  other  slaves 
within  several  of  her  majesty's  plantations  in  America^ 
being  of  a  surly  and  revengeful  spirit,  rude  and  insolent 
in  their  behavior,  and  very  ungovernable,  the  ovej  great 
number  and  increase  whereof  within  this  province  is  likely 
to  prove  of  pernicious  and  fatal  consequences  to  her  maj- 
esty's subjects  and  interest  here  unless  speedily  reme- 
died, and  is  a  discouragement  to  the  importation  of 
white  Christian  servants,  this  province  being  differently 
circumstanced  from  the  plantations  in  the  islands,  and 
having  great  numbers  of  the  Indian  natives  of  the  coun-, 
try  within  and  about  them,  and  at  this  time  under  the 
sorrowful  effects  of  their  rebellion  and  hostilities ;"  in 
.  consideration  of  all  which,  the  further  import  of  Indian 
slaves  is  totally  prohibited,  under  pain  of  forfeiture  to  the 
crown. 

Cotemporaneously  with  these  prohibitory  acts  of  Penn-  June, 
sylvania  and  Massachusetts,  the  first  extant  slave  law  of 
South  Carolina  was  enacted,  the  basis  of  the  existing 
slave  code  of  that  state.  "  Whereas,"  says  the  pream- 
ble of  this  remarkable  statute,  «< the  plantations  and  es- 
tates of  this  province  can.  not  be  well  and  sufficiently 
managed  and  brought  into  use  without  the  labor  and 


272  HISTORY    OF   THE,  UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  service  of  negro  and  other  Slaves ;  and  forasmuch  as  the 

XXII 

said  negroes  and  other  slaves  brought  unto  the  people 

1712.  of  this  province  for  that  purpose  are  of  barbarous,  wild, 
savage  natures,  and  such  as  renders  them  wholly  un- 
qualified to  be  governed  by  the  laws,  customs,  and  prac- 
•  . .  tices  of  this  province ;  but  that  it  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary that  such  other  constitutions,  laws,  and  orders  should 
in  this  province  be  made  and  enacted  for  the  good  regu- 
lation and  ordering  of  them  as  may  restrain  the  disorders, 
rapine,  and  inhumanity  to  which  they  are  naturally  prone 
and  inclined,  and  may  .also  tend  to  the  safety  and  secu- 
rity of  tjie  people  of  this  province  and  their  estates,"  it 
is-  therefore  enacted  that  "  all  negroes,  mulattoes,  mes- 
tizoes, or  Indians,  which  at  any  time  heretofore  have  been 
Sold,  and  now  are  held  or  taken  to  be,  or  hereafter  shall 
be  bought  or  sold  for  slaves,  are  hereby  declared  slaves ; 
and  they  and  their  children  are  hereby  made  and  de- 
clared slaves  to  all  intents  and -purposes,  excepting  all 
^  such  negroes,  mulattoes,  mestizoes,  and  Indians  which 
.  heretofore  have  been  or  hereafter  shall  be,  for  some  par- 
ticular merit,  .made  and  declared  free,  either  by  the  gov- 
ernor and  council  of  this  province,  pursuant  to  any  act 
of  this  province,  or  by  their  respective  masters  and  own- 
ers, and  also  excepting  all  such  as  can  prove  that  they 
ought  not  to  be  sold  for  slaves." 

Every  person  finding  a  slave  abroad  without  a  pass 
was  to  -arrest  him  if  possible,  and  punish  him  on  the  spot 
by  "  moderate  chastisement,"  under  a  penalty  of  twenty 
shillings  for  neglecting  it.  All  negro  houses  were  to  be 
searched  once  a  fortnight  for  arms  and  stolen  goods.  A 
slave  guilty  of  petty  larceny,  for  the  first  offense  was  to 
,  be  "  publicly  and  severely  whipped ;"  'for  the  second  of- 
fense was  to  have  "one  of  his  ears  cut  off,"  or,  "  be 
branded  In-  the  forehead  with  a  hot  iron,  that  the  mark 


•',*  .  •   " 

SLAVE   CODE  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.  273 

thereof  may  remain:"  for  the  third  offense  was  to  "have  CHAPTER 

XXII 

his  nose  slit;"  for  the  fourth  offense  was  "  to  suffer 
death,  or  other  punishment,"  at  the  discretion  of  the  1712. 
court.  Any  justice  of  the  peace,  on  complaint  against 
any  slave  for  any  crime,  from  "  chicken  stealing"  up  to 
"  insurrection"  and  a  murder,"  was  to  issue  his  warrant 
for  the  slave's  arrest,  and,  if  the  accusation  seemed  to  be 
well  founded,  was  to  associate  with  himself  another  jus- 
tice, they  two  to  summon  in  three  freeholders.  The 
five  together,  or,  by  an  additional  act,  the  majority  of 
them,  satisfactory  evidence  of  guilt  appearing,  were  to 
sentence  the  culprit  to  death,  or  such  lesser  punishment 
as  the  offense  might  seem  to  deserve.  In  case  of  lesser 
punishment,  "  no  particular  law  directing  such  punish- 
ment" was  necessary.  In  case  of  death,  "  the  kind  of 
death"  was  left  to  "  the  judgment  and  discretion"  of  the 
court,  execution  to  be  forthwith  done  on  their  sole  war- 
rant, the  owner  to  be  indemnified  at  the  public  charge. 
This  summary  form  of  procedure  in  the  trial  of  slaves 
remains  in  force  in  South  Carolina  to  this  day,  and  a 
very  similar  form  was  also  adopted,  and  still  prevails,  in 
North  Carolina. 

.He  who  enticed  a  slave,  "  by  specious  pretense  of 
promising  freedom  in  another  country,"  or  otherwise,  to 
leave  the  province,  if  successful,  or  if  caught  in  the  act, 
was  to  suffer  death ;  and  the  same  extreme  penalty  was 
to  be  inflicted  on  slaves  "  running  away  with  intent  to 
get  out  of  the,  province."  Any  slave  running  away  for 
twenty  days  at  once,  for  the  first  offense  was  to  be  "  se- 
verely and  publicly  whipped."  In  case  the  master  neg- 
lected to  inflict  this  punishment,  any  justice  might  order 
it  to  be  inflicted  by  the,  constable,  at  the  master's  ex- 
pense. For  the  second  offense  the  runaway  was  to  be 
branded  with  the  letter  R  on  the  right  cheek.  If  the 
IL— S 


, 


274  HISTORY  OF"  THE  tfNITtfD   STATES. 

CHAPTER  master  omitted  it,  he  was  to  forfeit  £10,  and  any  ius- 

XXII. 

..  tice  of  the  peace  might  order  the  branding  done.  For 
1712.  the  third  offense,  the  runaway,  if  absent  thirty  days,  was 
to  be  whipped,  and  have  one  of  his  ears  cut  off;  the 
master  neglecting  to  do  it  to  forfeit  £20 ;  any  justice, 
on  complaint,  to  order  it  done  as  before.  For  the  fourth 
offense,  the  runaway,  "  if  a  man,  was  to  be  gelt,"  to  be 
paid  for  by  the  province  if  he  died  under  the  operation; 
if  a  woman,  she  was  to  be  severely  whipped,  branded  on 
the  left  cheek  with  the  letter  R,  and  her  left  ear  cut 
off.  Any  master  neglecting  for  twenty  days  to  inflict 
these  atrocious  cruelties,  was  to  forfeit  his  property  in 
the  slave  to  any  informer  who  might  complain  of  him 
within  six, months.  Any  captain  or  commander  of  a 
company,  "  on  notice  of  the  haunt,  residence,  and  hid- 
ing place  of  any  runaway  slaves,"  was  "  to  pursue,  ap- 
prehend, and  take  them,  either  alive  or  dead,"  being  in 
either  case  entitled  to  a  premium  of  from  two  to  four 
pounds  for  each  slave.  All  persons  wounded  or  disabled 
on  such  expeditions  were  to  be  compensated  by  the  pub- 
lic. If  any  slave  under  punishment  "  shall  suffer  in  life 
or  member,  which,"  says  the  act,  "  seldom  happens,  no 
person  whatsoever  shall  be  liable  to  any  penalty  therefor." 
Any  person  killing  his  slave  out  of  "  wantonness," 
"  bloody-mindedness,"  or  "  cruel  intention,"  was  to  for- 
feit "  fifty  pounds  current  money/'  or,  if  the  slave  be- 
longed to  another  person,  twenty- five- pounds  to  the  pub- 
lic, and  the  slave's  value  to  the  owner.  No  master  was 
to  allow  his  slaves  to  hire  their  own  time,  or,  by  a  sup- 
plementary act  two  years  after,  "  to  plant  for  themselves 
any  corn,  pease,  or  rice,  or  to  keep  any  stock  of  hogs, 
cattle,  or  horses." 

"  Since  charity  and  the  Christian  religion  which  we 
profess,"  says  the  concluding  section  of  this  remarkable 


•    *• 

SLAVE   CODE- OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.  £75 

'          '*         "   ,  LxiXL 

act,  "  obliges  us  to  wish  well  to  the  souls  of  men,  and  CHAPTER 

XXII 

that  religion  may  not  be  made  a  pretense  to  alter  any          ' 
man's  property  and  right,  and  that  no  person  may  neg-  1712. 
lect  to  baptize  their  negroes  or  slaves  for  fear  that  there- 
by they  should  be  manumitted  and  set  free,"  "it  shall 
be  and  is  hereby  declared  lawful  for  any  negro  or  Indian 
slave,  or  any  other  slave  or  slaves  whatsoever,  to  receive 
and  profess  the  Christian  faith,  and  to  be  thereunto  bap- 
tized ;  but,  notwithstanding  such  slave  or  slaves  shall 
receive  or  profess  the  Christian  religion,  and  be  baptized, 
he  or  they  shall  not  thereby  be  manumitted  or  set  free." 

South  Carolina,  it  thus  appears,  assumed  at  the  be- 
ginning the  same  bad  pre-eminence  on  the  subject  of 
slave  legislation  which  she  still  maintains.  Then,  how- 
ever, as  now,  the  legality  of  her  legislation  seems  open 
to  some  question.  The  charter  of  Carolina  expressly 
provided  that  the  acts  of  the  colonial  Assembly  should 
not  be  repugnant  to  the  law  of  England.  The  South 
Carolina  Assembly  seemed  inclined,  however,  to  put  a 
reverse  sense  on  this  restriction.  Another  act  of  the 
same  year  recognizes  indeed  the  binding  force  of  the 
common  law  as  modified  by  certain  specified  English 
statutes  in  amendment  of  it,  but  only  when  "  not  incon- 
sistent with  the  particular  constitutions,  customs,  and 
laws  of  this  province." 

The  naval  force  maintained  for  the  protection  of  the 
colonial  trade  cost  the  mother  country  annually  near 
half  a  million  of  pounds  sterling,  or  upward  of  two  mill- 
ions of  dollars.  The  war  had  been  glorious,  but  the  na- 
tion was  overwhelmed  with  taxes,  and  the  Tory  minis- 
try, intent  on  peace,  would  listen  to  no  more  schemes  for 
the  conquest  of  Canada.  The  treaty  of  Utrecht  pres- 
ently terminated  a  contest  of  which  the  burden  is  still 
felt  in  fifty  millions,  $240,000,000,  of  the  English  na-  '  • 


* 


276  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  tkmal  debt.     This  peace  was  stigmatized  by  the  Whigs 

__  as  sacrificing  the  fruits  of  many  victories.      So  far,  hqw- 

1713.  ever,  as  America  was  concerned,  it  was  a  great  advance 
on  the  treaty  of  Ryswick.  The  fur  trade  of  Hudson 
Bay,  the  whole  of  Newfoundland — reserving  to  the 
French  a  certain  participation  in  the  fisheries — the 
French  part  of  the  Island  of  St.  Kitt's,  in  the  West  In- 
dies,  and  Acadie  "  according  to  its  ancient  limits,"  were 
yielded  to  the  English,  whose  sovereignty  over  the  Five 
Nation^,  was  also  incidentally  acknowledged.  What  the 
English  merchants  esteemed  a  far  more  valuable  conces- 
sion was  the  transfer  to  the  English  South  Sea  Com- 
pany of  a -contract  for  the  annual  transportation  to  Span- 
".  ish  America  of  not  less  than  four  thousand  eight  hundred 
negroes,  known  as  the  Assiento,  originally  entered  into, 
shortly  after  the  accession  of  the  Bourbon  dynasty,  with 
a  company  of  French  merchants.  The  territory  on  the 
Bay  of  Fundy,  ceded  by  France,  was  erected  into  a  new 
province,  for  which  the  old  name  of  NOVA  SCOTIA  was  re- 
vived. In  that  part  of  Massachusetts  east  of  the  Pis- 
cataqua,  near  a  third  of  the  inhabitants  had  been  slain. 
Of  the  once  flourishing  settlements  on  that  coast,  only 
three  survived  the  war.  But  the  Eastern  Indians,  weary 
of  a  contest  in  which  they  too  had  severely  suffered,  were 
induced  to  make  peace. 

1715.  While  New  England  thus  at  last  obtained  rest,  South 
Carolina  was  made  to  feel,  in  her  turn,  the  miseries  of 
Indian  warfare.  Those  who  had  provoked  this  outbreak 
wished  to  ascribe  it  to  French  and  Spanish  instigation  ; 
but  Spots  wood  let  the  Board  of  Trade  into  the  secret 
when  he  stated  "  that  the  Indians  never  break  with  the 
English  without  gross  provocation  from  the  persons  trad- 
ing with  them."  The  Yamassees  along  the  north  bank 
of  the  Savannah  were  the  first  to  commence  hostilities. 


INDIAN  WAR  IN  SOUTH  CAROLINA.  277 

They  were  soon  joined  by  the  Catawbas,  the  Cherokees,  CHAPTER 

and  the  Creeks,  all  of  them  late  allies  of  the  Carolinians 

in  the  war  against  the  Tuscaroras.  The  outer  settle-  1715. 
ments  were  broken  up,  the  planters  being  driven  on  all 
sides  into  Charleston.  Governor  Craven  proclaimed  mar- 
tial law ;  and  to  prevent  either  men  or  provisions  from 
leaving  the  colony,  laid  an  embargo  on  all  shipping. 
Ta  furnish  means  in  this  emergency,  the  Assembly  is- 
sued new  bills  of  credit.  Military  stores  were  sent  from 
New  York  and  Virginia  by  Hunter  and  Spotswood.  The 
New  York  Assembly  declined  to  grant  assistance,  as 
from  Carolina  they  had  never  received  any ;  nor  could 
Hunter  engage  the  Five  Nations  in  the  quarrel.  Vir- 
ginia voted  a  small  sum ;  and  Spotswood  sent  a  ship  of 
war  to  Charleston  with  a  force  of  a  hundred  and  fifteen 
volunteers  and  thirty  tributary  Indians.  'North  Caroli- 
na, grateful  for  recent  assistance,  did  what  she  could. 
The  proprietaries  contributed  the  produce  of  their  quit- 
rents.  On  the  petition  of  the  London  merchants,  the 
Commons  addressed  the  crown  to  send  supplies  of  arms, 
and  stores.  Troops  might  also  have  been  sent  but  for 
the  Scottish  rebellion  in  favor  of  the  exiled  Stuarts, 
which  alarmed  at  that  moment  the  ministers  of  the  new 
dynasty. 

Having  mustered  the  militia,  and  armed  such  of  the 
slaves  as  could  be  trusted,  Craven  marched  to  meet  the 
enemy.  Defeated  and  discouraged,  the  Yamassees  re- 
tired to  Florida,  and  in  the  course  of  a  year  or  two  the 
other  tribes  consented  to  a  peace.  The  damages  inflict- 
ed by  this  war  were  estimated  at  £100,000,  besides  a 
debt,  in  bills  of  credit,  of  nearly  equal  amount. 

In  the  quarter  of  a  century  from  the  English  Revolu- 
tion to  the  accession  of  the  house  of  Hanover,  the  popu- 
lation of  the  English  colonies  had  doubled.  The  follow- 


278 


rilSTORY   OF  THE  .UNITED   STATES. 


CHAPTER  ing  table,  compiled  for  the* use  of  the  Board  of  Trade, 


XXIL 


though  probably  somewhat  short  of  the  truth,  will  serve 
1715.  to  exhibit  its  distribution  : 


Whites.         Negroes.         Total. 


New  Hampshire  ........     9,500 

Massachusetts..  '„  .......  9.4,000- 

Rhode  Island.  ...I."---..    '8,500 

Connecticut...  ,-i.l  ----  46,000 

New  York,..  ........  ...27,000 

New  Jersey  .......  .  .'.'..  21,000 


150 

2,000 
500 
1,500 
4,000 
1,500 


9,650 
96,000 

9,000 
47,000 
31,000- 
22,500 


Maryland..!........'...  -40,700 

Virginia....  ..........  .  72,000 

North  Carolina  ____  .  ____     7,500 

South  Carolina  .........     6,250 


9,500 
23,000 

3,700 
10,500 


50,200 
95,000 
11,200 
16,750 


375,750    58,850   434,600 

Massachusetts,  in  addition  to  the  numbers  above  stated, 
also  contained  twelve  hundred  subject  Indians.  The  im- 
migration into  the  colonies  during  these  twenty  -five 
years  had  been  inconsiderable,  consisting  principally  of 
negro  slaves,  and  of  Irish  and  German  indented  servants. 
The  great  majority  of  the  present  inhabitants  were  na- 
tives of  America. 

The  late  war,  like  its  predecessor,  had  left  a  disagree^ 
able  residuum  behind  it  in  the  numerous  privateersmen, 
who  sought  to  supply  the  occupation  of  which  the  peace 
had  deprived  them  by  the  equally  honest  but  less  law- 
ful trade  of  piracy.  The  American  seas  again  swarmed 
with  freebooters,  who  made  their  head-quarters  among 
the  Bahama  Islands,  or  lurked  along  the  unfrequented 
coast  of  the  Carojinas.  Bellamy,  one  of  the  most  noted 
1717.  of  their  number,  was  wrecked  on  Cape  Cod,  where  he 
perished  with  a  hundred  of  his  men.  Only  five  or  six 
,  escaped  to  the  shore,  and  they  were  made  prisoners  and 
hung  at  Boston.  John  Theach,  another  pirate  not  less 
notorious,  commonly  known  as  "  Blackboard,"  was  ac- 


PIRACY   SUPPRESSED.        .,  279 

customed  to  lurk  about  Pamlico  River,  with  the  conniv-  CHAPTER 

'"•"''  XXII 

ance,  there  was  reason  to  believe,  of  Knight,  secretary          ' 
of  North  Carolina  and  collector  at  Pamlico.     Even  Gov-  1717; 
ernor  Eden,  the  successor  of  Hyde,  was  thought  to  have 
some  connection  with  the  matter.     Theach  at  first  took 
advantage  of  a  royal  proclamation  offering  pardon  to  all 
submitting  pirates  ;  but,  as  he  soon  resumed  his  old  em- 
ployment, the  Assembly  of  Virginia  offered  a  reward  for 
his  capture.     He  was  presently  taken,  after  a  desperate 
resistance,  by  two  ships  which  Spots  wood  dispatched 
from  the  Chesapeake. 

A  force  sent  from  England  took  possession  of  New  1718. 
Providence,  the  chief  harbor  of  the  Bahamas,  built  forti- 
fications, and  established  a  regular  colony,  the  first  per- 
manent occupation  of  that  barren  group.  A  desperate 
party  of  pirates,  led  by  Steed  Bonnet,  who  had  been  a 
lieutenant  in  the  British  army,  sought  refuge  on  the  un- 
inhabited coast  about  Cape  Fear.  By  an  expedition 
against  them,  fitted  out  at  Charleston,  at  an  expense  to 
the  province  of  £10,000,  Bonnet  was  taken,  and,  with 
forty  or  more  of  his  accomplices,  was  tried,  found  guilty, 
and  executed.  Having  lost  that  colonial  sympathy  they 
formerly  enjoyed,  the  pirates  were  now  diligently  follow- 
ed up.  Twenty-six,  including  natives  of  Rhode  Island, 
Connecticut,  New  York,  and  Virginia,  were  executed  at  1723. 
once  by  sentence  of  a  commission  of  Admiralty  in  ses- 
sion at  Newport.  Thus  vigorously  attacked,  piracy  soon 
disappeared  from  the  American  seas. 


HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED    STATES. 


(    "        .    •   vV^-s'''*     .  --  ff    jftJfC/     '  ,,'-,. 

:;CH  AFTER   XXIII. 

PROGRESS  OF  LOUISIANA.     REIGN  OF  GEORGE  L    PAPER 
MONEY  SCHEMES. 

T-    '  r 
xxiii  ^  promote  the  more  rapid  settlement  of  Louisiana, 

-  !  -  which  at  the  end  of  twelve  years  numbered  hardly  three 
hundred  inhabitants,  the  whole  province,  with  a  monop- 

1712.,  oly  of  trade,  had  been  granted,  pending  the  late  war,  to 
Anthony  Crozat,  a  wealthy  French  merchant,  who  flat- 
tered himself  with  profits  to  be  derived  from  the  discov- 
ery of  mines,  and  the  opening  of  a  trade  with  Mexico. 
Crozat  contracted,  on  his  part,  to  send  every  year  two 
ships  from  France  with  goods  and  immigrants.  He  was 
to  be  entitled,  also,  to  import  an  annual  cargo  of  slaves 
from  Africa,  notwithstanding  the  monopoly  of  that  trade 
in  the  hands  of  a  special  company.  The  French  gov- 
ernment agreed  to  pay  annually  50,000  livres,  $10,000, 
toward  supporting  the  civil  and  military  establishments. 

1714.  Under  these  riew  auspices,  a  trading  house  was  es- 
tablished far  up  the  Alabama,  near  the  present  site  of 

1716.  Montgomery,  and  another  at  Natchitoches,  on  the  Red 
River.  Fort  Rosalie  was  built  on  the  site  of  Natchez, 
and  presently  a  town  began  to  grow  up  about  it  —  the 
oldest  on  the  Lower  Mississippi. 

Crozat  made  strenuous  efforts  to  open  a  trade  with 
Mexico.  His  agents  traversed  the  wilds  of  Texas,  and 
reached  the  §panish  settlements  on  the  Lower  Rio  Grande  ; 
but  they  were  arrested  there,  and  sent  into  the  interior. 
The  intercourse  by  sea,  allowed  during  the  war,  was  pro- 
hibited after  the  peace  ;  and  a  vessel  which  Crozat  dis- 


PROGRESS  OF  LOUISIANA.  281 

patched  to  Vera  Cruz  was  obliged  to  return  without  start-  CHAPTER 

*."»*'•  XXIII 

ing  her  cargo.     As  yet,  Spain  had  relaxed  little  or  n'oth- __ 

ing  of  her  jealous  colonial  policy. 

After  five  years  of  large  outlay  and  small  returns,  1717. 
Crozat  was  glad  to  resign  his  patent.  Other  specula-  .  . 
tors,  still  more  sanguine,  were  found  to  fill  his  place. 
The  exclusive  commerce  of  Louisiana  for  twenty-five 
years,  with  extensive  powers  of  government  and  a  mo- 
nopoly of  the  Canadian  fur  trade,  was  bestowed  on  the 
Company  of  the  West,  otherwise  called  the  Mississippi 
Company,  known  presently,  also,  as  the  Company  of  the 
Indies,  and  notorious  for  the  stock-jobbing  and  bubble 
hopes  of  profit  to  which  it  gave  rise.  At  the  date  of 
this  transfer  the  colony  contained,  soldiers  included, 
about  seven  hundred  people.  The  Mississippi  Company 
undertook  to  introduce  six  thousand  whites,  and  half  as 
many  negroes ;  and  their  connection  with.  Law's  Royal 
Bank,  and  the  great  rise  in  the  price  of  shares,  of  which 
new  ones  were  constantly  created,  gave  them,  for  a  time, 
unlimited  command  of  funds.  Private  individuals,  to 
whom  grants  of  land  were  made,  also  sent  out  colonists 
on  their  own  account.  Law  received  twelve  miles  square 
on  the  Arkansas,  which  he  undertook  to  settle  with  fif- 
teen hundred  Germans. 

Bienville,  reappointed  governor,  intending  to  found  a  1718, 
town  on  the  river,  set  a  party  of  convicts  to  clear  up  a 
swamp,  the  site  of  the'  present  city  of  New  Orleans.    At 
the  end  of  three  years,  when  Charlevoix  saw  it,  the  ris-  1722. 
ing  city  could  boast  a  large  wooden  warehouse,  a  shed     Jan- 
for  a  church,  two  or  three  ordinary  houses,  and  a  quan- 
tity of  huts  crowded  together  without  much  order.     The 
prospect  did  not  seem  very  encouraging ;  yet,  in  "  this 
savage  and  desert  place,  as  yet  almost  entirely  covered 
with  canes  and  trees,"  that  hopeful  and  intelligent  Jesuit 


282  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  could  see  "  what  was  one  day  to  become,  perhaps,  too, 

XXIII 

'    at  no  distant  day,  an  opulent  city,  the  metropolis  of  a 
1723.  great  and  rich  colony."     Bienville,  equally  hopeful,  pres- 
ently removed  thither  the  seat  of  government.    '  '*?' , 
1719.       During  the  rupture  between  France  and  Spain,  occa- 
sioned by  the  intrigues  of  Alberoni,  Pensacola  twice  fell 

1721.  -into  the  hands  of  the  French,  but  after  the  peace  reverted 

1722.  again  to  its  former  owners.     A  new  attempt  to  plant  a 
settlement  near  Matagorda  Bay  was  defeated  by  the  hos- 
tility of  the  natives.      The   Spaniards,  alarmed  at  this 
encroaching  spirit,  now  first  established  military  posts  in 
Texas. 

The  disastrous  failure  of  Law's  Royal  Bank,  and  the 
great  depreciation  in  the  company's  stock,  put  a  sudden 
period  to  immigration.  But  already  there  were  several 
thousand  inhabitants  in  Louisiana,  and  the  colony  might 
be  considered  as  firmly  established.  It  still  remained, 
however,  dependent  for  provisions  on  France  and  St.  Do- 
mingo ;  and  the  hopes  of  profit,  so  confidently  indulged 
by  the  projectors,  proved  a  total  failure.  Agriculture 
in  this  new  region  was  an  expensive  and  uncertain  ad- 
venture. Annual  floods  inundated  the  whole  neighbor- 
hood of  the  Lower  Mississippi,  except  only  a  narrow 
strip  on  the  immediate  river  bank ;  and  even  that  was 
not  entirely  safe  unless  protected  by  a  levee  or  raised 
dike.  The  unhealthiness  of  the  climate  presented  a  se- 
rious obstacle  to  the  progress  of  the  colony.  The  unfit- 
ness  of  the  colonists  was  another  difficulty.  Many  of 
them  were  transported  convicts  or  vagabonds,  collected 
from  the  public  highways.  But  these  proved  so  unprof- 
itable that  their  further  importation  was  forbidden.  The 
chief  reliance  for  agricultural  operations  was  on  the  labor 
of  slaves  imported  from  Africa.  Law's  German  settlers 
on  the  Arkansas,  finding  themselves  abandoned,  came 


PROGRESS  OF  LOUISIANA.  283 

•  %  . 

down  to  New  Orleans,  received  allotments  on  both  sides  CHAPTER 

YYITT 

the  river,  some  twenty  miles  above  the  city,  and  settled 

there  in  cottage  farms,  raising  vegetables  for  the  supply  1722. 
of  the  town  and  the  soldiers.      Thus  began  the  settle- 
ment of  that  rich  tract   still  known  as  the  "  German    .     ,• 
coast."  ", 

The  lower  part  of  the  province  was  under  vthe  eccle-  1724. 
siastical  care  of  the  Capuchins,  who  had  a  convent  at 
New  Orleans,  and  who  acted  as  curates  of  that  and  the 
neighboring  parishes.  The  upper  and  more  remote  parts 
were  under  the  charge  of  the  Jesuits,  who  agreed  to 
keep  at  least  fourteen  priests  in  the  province.  They  had 
a  plantation  and  a  house  at  New  Orleans,  but  could 
perform  no  ecclesiastical  functions  there  without  license 
from  the  Capuchins.  The  priests  of  both  orders  re- 
ceived from  the  company  annual  salaries  of  600  livres, 
$133,  with  an  addition  of  one  third  during  the  first  five 
years,  and  an  outfit  of  450  livres.  A  convent  of  Ursu- 
line  nuns  was  also  established  in  New  Orleans  for  the  care 
of  the  hospital  and  the  education  of  girls. 

Six  hundred  and  fifty  French  troops  and  two  hund- 
red Swiss  were  maintained  in  the  province.  The  admin- 
istration was  intrusted  to  a  commandant  general,  two 
king's  lieutenants,  a  senior  counselor,  three  other  counsel- 
ors, an  attorney  general,  and  a  clerk.  These,  with  such 
directors  of  the  company  as  might  be  in  the  province,  com- 
posed the  Superior  Council,  of  which  the  senior  counselor 
acted  as  president.  This  council,  besides  its  executive 
functions,  was  the  supreme  tribunal  in  civil  and  criminal 
matters.  Local  tribunals  were  composed  of  a  director  or 
agent  of  the  company,  to  whom  were  added  two  of  the  most 
notable  inhabitants  in  civil,  and  four  in  criminal  cases.  : 

Rice  was  the  principal  crop,  the  main  resource  for 
feeding  the  population.  To  this  .were  added  tobacco  and 


HISTORY   OF   THE.'UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  indigo!     The  bay  berry,  a  natural  production  of  that  re- 

__ 1_  gion,  as  of  most  parts  of  the  United  States,  was  culti- 

1724.  vated  for  its  wax.  The  fig  had  been  introduced  from 
Provence,  and  the  -orange  from  St.  Domingo.  Grants  of 
land  were  made  of  so  many  arpents  or  acres  front,  run- 
ning back  for  depth.  As  the  settlements  in  the  Illinois 
country  were  increased  by  immigration  from  Canada,  sup- 
plies of  flour  began  to  be  received  from  that  region. 
1714.  ,  The  accession  of  the  house  of  Hanover  to  the  throne 
AuS-  (  of  Britain  .and  Ireland  was  hailed  throughout  the  British 
American  colonies  as  a  Whig  and  Protestant  triumph, 
this  final  death-blow  to  the  Tory  and  High  Church 
doctrine  of  the  divine  right  of  kings.  The  Board  of 
Trade,  reduced  by  the  new  ministers  to  a  subordinate 
•  position,  became  henceforth  a  mere  committee  for  refer- 
ence and  report — a  dependency  upon  the  secretaryship 
of  state.  There  were  two  secretaries  of  state.  The 
superintendence  of  the  colonies,  exercised  for  successive 
short  periods  by  Stanhope,  Metheuen,  Addison,  Craggs, 
and  Carteret,  passed  presently  to  the  Duke  of  Newcastle, 
by  whom  it  ,was  held  for  a  quarter  of  a  century. 

Not  less  annoyed  than  their  predecessors  by  obstacles 
which  the  colonial  charters  interposed  to  the  full  exBrcise 
1716.  of  metropolitan  authority,  the  new  ministry  brought  for- 
ward a  new  bill  "  for  regulating  the  chartered  govern- 
ments." Such  was  the  show  of  opposition  that  this  bill 
was  speedily  dropped.  Orders,  however,  were  transmit- 
ted to  all  the  colonial  governors  not  to  consent  to  any 
laws  which  might  affect  British  trade,  unless  with  claus- 
es suspending  their  operation  till  they  received  the  royal 
assent.  In  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  and  the  two  Car- 
v  olinas,  the  royal  assent  was  not  necessary  to  the  enact- 
ment of  laws ;  and  hence  the  disposition,  so  repeatedly 
exhibited,  to  strip  those  provinces  of  their  charters.  So 


SOUTH    CAROLINA.  285 

far  as  the  Carolinas  were  concerned,  the  state  of  discord  CHAPTER 

*        •  XXTII 

between  the  proprietors  and  the  colonists  soon  furnished 

opportunity  for  carrying  out  the  ministerial  wishes  ;  and  1715, 
those  wishes  served  to  justify  a  course  of  conduct  on  the 
part  of  the  colonists  which  otherwise  might  have  proved ' 
very  dangerous  to  those  implicated. 

When  the  Carolina  proprietaries  had  formerly  attempt-    . 
ed  to  establish  the  counties  as  election  districts  for  their 
southern  province,  instead  of  having  the  whole  Assembly 
chosen  at  a  general  meeting  of  the  freemen  at  Charles- 
ton, they  had  been  opposed  and  defeated  by  the  colonists. 
But  opinions,  or  rather  interests,  had  changed ;   and  un- 
der the  temporary  administration  of  Robert  Daniel,  to  , 
whom,  after  the  repulse  of  the  Indians,  Craven  had  re-.  1716. 
linquished  the  government,  the  parishes  were  converted 
by  act  into  election  districts,  among  which  the  thirty-six 
members  of  Assembly  were  distributed,  the  elections  to 
be  held  at  the  parish  churches. 

The  Assembly  chosen  under  this  act,  without  stop- 
ping to  ask  the  consent  of  the  proprietaries,  offered  the 
land  from  which  the  Indians  had  lately  been  driven  to 
such  settlers  as  would  undertake  to  defend  them.  Five 
hundred  Irish  accepted  grants  on  these  terms ;  but  the 
proprietaries  refused  to  .ratify  the  offer,  and  ordered  the  ', 
conquered  lands  to  ;be  surveyed  into  baronies  for  them- 
selves. 

South  Carolina  had  beeii  the  first  to  introduce  a  mod- 
ification of  the  paper  money  system,  afterward  extens- 
ively adopted  in  New  England  and  the  middle  colonies, 
by.  which  bills  of  credit  were  issued,  not  merely  as  a 
financial  expedient,  but  as  a  contrivance  for  the  advance- 
ment of  trade.  The  first  issue  of  this  sort  was  a  "  bank,"  1712. 
or  stock  of  £48,000,  lent  out  to  individuals,  to  be  .re- 
paid by  annual  installments.  Other  bills  had  been  is- 


286  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  sued  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  late  Indian  war;  and, 

XXIII. 

owing  to  excessive  issue  and  other  causes,  the  whole 

1716.  paper,  though  declared  a  legal  tender,  was  so  deprecia- 
ted as  to  pass  at  the  rate  of  seven  for  one.     Undeterred 
by  this  great  depreciation,  the  Assembly  issued  a  new 
«  bank,'7  or  stock  of  £30,000,  to  be  lent  out  to  individ- 
uals.    Toward  the  redemption  of  the  outstanding  bills, 
they  levied  duties  of  ten  per  cent,  on  the  importation  of 
British  goods;     The  British  merchants  denounced  this 
act  to  the  Board  of  Trade,  and  the  proprietaries,  threat- 
ened with  the  loss  of  their  charter,  were  obliged  to  dis- 
allow it.    This  disallowance  enraged  the  colonists.    They 

1717.  applied  for  redress,  first  to  the  king,  and  then  to  Parlia- 
ment, complaining  of  the  cost  of  the  Indian  war,  not  yet 
entirely  concluded  ;  of  the  unwillingness  or  inability  of 
the  proprietaries  to  defend  them ;  and  their  certain  ruin 
unless  Parliament,  "  by  proper  methods,  placed  the  prov- 
ince under  the  immediate  protection  of  the  king." 

The  administration  of  the  colony  had  passed  to  Rob- 
.    ert  Johnson,  son  of  Sir  Nathaniel  Johnson,  the  former 
governor,  to  whom  the  proprietaries  sent  out  their  dis- 
sent to  various  laws,  and  especially  to  the  recent  act  for 
election  districts,  under  which  the  existing  Assembly  had 

1718.  been  chosen.    In  the  present  excited  state  of  the  colony, 
the  governor  judged  it  best  to  keep  his  instructions  to 
himself ;  but  they  presently  leaked  out.      The  Assem- 
bly, highly  excited,  assumed  the  position  that  acts  once 
approved  by  the    governor  could  not  afterward  be  set 
aside  by  the  proprietaries,  since  their  approbation  was  in- 
cluded in  his — a  doctrine  established  in  Pennsylvania  as 
the  constitutional  law  of  that  province. 

Trott,  the  chief  justice,  once  an  active  popular  leader, 
but  since  his  appointment  to  office  a  zealous  partisan 
of  the  proprietaries,  undertook  to<  controvert  this  doc- 


REVOLUTION  IN  SOUTH  CAROLINA.  '•  287 

trine.     The  Assembly  replied  to  him  by  an  impeachment  CHAPTER 

for  malversations  in  office.     Even  the  council  concurred 

in  this  proceeding;  and  one  of  their  number  was  sent  1718. 
to  England  to  represent  matters  to  the  proprietaries,  and 
.to  request  the  removal  of  Trott.  During  this  interval, 
Johnson,  assisted  by  Rhett,  the  receiver  general,  and  sup- 
ported  by  the  Assembly,  effected  the  capture  of  Bonnet 
and  his  gang  of  pirates  at  the  mouth  of  the  Cape  Fear 
River,  as  related  in  the  previous  chapter. 

The  proprietaries  saw  in  the  late  proceedings  an  "in-  1719V 
dustrious  searching  for  causes  of  dissatisfaction  and 
grounds  of  quarrel,  with  a  view  to  shake  off  their  au- 
thority." Three  of  the  counselors  were  dismissed,  and 
'several  new  ones  added,  the  number  being  raised  from 
seven  to  twelve.  The  governor  was  reprimanded  for  not 
having  obeyed  his  former  instructions,  and  was  ordered 
at  once  to  dissolve  the  present  illegal  Assembly,  and  to 
call  a  new  one,  to  be  elected  under  the  old  law.  ,  .  . 

When  these  orders  became  known  in  the  colony,  ex-    Nov, 
citement  rose  to  a  high  pitch.    Johnson  saw  the  danger, 
but  he  obeyed.      His   influence,  however,   and  that  of 
Trott  and  Rhett,  was   completely  swept   away.     The 
newly-chosen  representatives  refused  to  acknowledge  the    Dec. 
new  council,  and,  declining  to  act  as  an  Assembly,  as- 
sumed the    character    of  a    revolutionary  Convention. 
They  declared  that  the  proprietaries,  by  their  late  pro-  , 

ceedings,  had  forfeited  their  rights  in  the  province ;  and 
requested  Johnson  to  undertake  the  administration  in  the 
king's  name.  When  he  declined  to  do  so,  they  directed 
all  public  officers  to  obey  their  orders  only. 

A  rupture  having  lately  taken  place  between  the  Span- 
ish and  English  governments,  a  fleet  was  fitting  out 
at  the  Havana  for  an  attack  on  New  Providence  and 
Carolina.  An  association  for  .common  defense,  both 


HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

against  the  Spaniards  and  the  proprietaries,  was  drawn 
np.  and  signed  .by  most  of  the  colonists.     The  conven- 

1719.  tion  then  assumed  the  character  of  an  Assembly.     James 
Moore,  one  of  their  most  active  leaders,  commander  for- 
merly in  the  Tuscorara  war,  was  appointed  to  govern 
the  colony  in  the  king's  name,  and  a  new  council  of 
twelve  members  was  constituted,  of  which  Sir  Hovenden 
Walker,  the  naval  commander  in  the  unsuccessful  en- 
terprise'against  Quebec,  but  since  the  peace  a  planter  in 
South  Carolina,  was  made  president.     To  the  new  chief 
justice,  as  well  as  to  the  governor,  salaries  were  voted 
twice  as-  large  as  those  formerly  given.     Vigorous  meas- 
ures were  taken  for  defense  against  the  Spaniards ;  but 
that  danger  was  soon  over.      The  attack  on  New  Provi- 
dence failed,  and  the   Spanish  fleet  was  soon   after  dis- 
persed in  a  storm.     Johnson  induced  the  commanders  of 
some  ships  of  war  in  the  harbor  to  threaten  Charleston 
with  a  bombardment.     But  the  insurgents  were  inflexi- 
ble, and  the  deposed  governor  abandoned  all  attempts  to 
recover  his  authority. 

1720.  An  agent,  sent  to  England  on  behalf  of  the  colonists, 
pleaded  "  the  confused,  negligent,  and  helpless  govern- 
ment of  the  proprietaries,"  and  the  danger  the  colony 
was 'in  of  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  Spaniards..    These 
complaints  were  made  to  willing  ears.      The  bill  of  five 
years  before,  for  regulating  the  chartered  governments, 
was  again  introduced  into  Parliament,  but  it  met  again 
with  determined  opposition.     It  was  on  this  occasion  that 
Jeremiah  Dummer,  agent  for  Connecticut  and  Massa- 
chusetts, published  his  "  Defense  of  the  New  England 

.  Charters."  The  bill  was  again  abandoned,  but  legal 
process  was  ordered  to  issue  for  vacating  the  Carolina 
charter  ;  and,  pending  this  process,  the  administration  of 
South  Carolina  was  assumed  by  the  crown. 


A   ROYAL  GOVERNOR'IN   SOUTH  CAROLINA.     289 
Francis  Nicholson,  now  Sir  Francis,  busy  on  the  colo-  CHAPTER 

XXIII 

nial  stage  for  thirty  years  preceding,  was  sent  to  South '_^ 

Carolina  as  provisional  royal  governor.  Always  arbi-  1721, 
trary  in  his  principles  and  temper,  Nicholson  was  now 
old  and  peevish ;  but  he  was  poor,  and  he  had  learned^ 
by  experience  the  necessity  of  a  certain  accommodation 
to  the  wishes  of  the  colonists.  Having  been  "  falsely 
sworn  out  of  Virginia,  and  lied  out  of  Nova  Scotia" — 
at  least  so  he  represented — he  resolved  to  make  matters 
easy  in  Carolina.  Authorized  to  appoint  the  members  . 
of  his  council  and  all  other  officers,  he  courted  the  favor 
of  the  late  insurgents.  Middle  ton,  who,  as  speaker,  had 
defied  Governor  Johnson,  was  made  president  of  the 
council ;  and  Allen,  the  leader  in  the  impeachment  of 
the  late  chief  justice,  was  appointed  to  fill  his  place. 

Nicholson  called  an  Assembly,  which  confirmed  all  the  '  Sept' 
late  revolutionary  proceedings,  discharged  all  suits  for 
alleged  wrongs  during  the.  late  disturbances,  regulated 
the  administration  of  justice,  reduced  official  fees,  and 
established  that  system  of  local  elections,  the  rejection 
of  which  by  the  proprietaries  had  been  the  immediate 
cause  of  the  late  revolt.  They  granted,  also,  a  revenue, 
produced  by  an  impost  on  liquors  and  other  goods  and 
slaves  imported,  but  they  intrusted  it  to  a  treasurer  of 
their  own  appointment,  and  they  declined  to  vote  sala- 
ries except  from  year  to  year. 

To  "make  the  people  respect  the  government,"  Nich-' 
olson  had  brought  with  him  an  independent  company, 
maintained,  like  those  of  New  York,  at  the  expense  of 
the  crown.  This  company  was  presently  stationed  on 
the  Altamaha,  as  an  outpost  against  the  Spaniards.  The- 
recent  withdrawal  of  the"  Yamassees  and  Catawbas  left 
the  l6wrer  country  of  South  Carolina  free  of  Indian  pop- 
ulation,, Nicholson  took  care  to  renew  the  former  friend- 
II.— T 


•JQO          '    -    -HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED  STATES. 
CHAPTER  ly  relations  with  the  more  distant  and  powerful  Chero- 

XXIII 

kees.     By  an  arrangement  with  the  Creeks,  the  Savan- 

1721,  nah  was  fixed  as  their  eastern  boundary,  with  permis- 
sion, however,  to  the  English  to  maintain  the  post  above- 
mentioned  on  the  Altamaha. 

1^22.       At -the  next  session  a  bill  was  introduced  for  adding 
Dcc-     ^120jOOO  to  the  paper  money  of  the  colony.     Twenty- 
eight  of  the  principal  traders  of  Charleston  remonstrated 
against  this  emission,  and  in  a  petition  on  the  .subject 
which  they  presented  to  Nicholson,  alleged  as  the  chief 
oause  of  the  present  excessive  depreciation  "  that  every 
legislative  engagement  for  recalling  the  various  emis- 
sions of  bills  Nhad  been  broken  through  by  every  Assem- 
bly."     Provoked  at  this  plain  statement  of  unpalatable 
truth,  the  Assembly  pronounced  the  merchants'  petition 
"  a  false  and  scandalous  libel,"  and  committed  the  peti- 
tioners to  prison  for  breach  of  privilege.     Neither  the 
gpvernor  nor  the  council  dared  to  interfere,  and  the  pris- 
oners were  only  discharged  upon  confessing  their  fault, 
and  paying  a  large  sum  in  the  name  of  fees.     The  bill 
for  the  new  emission  of  paper,  though  passed  by  the  As- 
sembly,  was   disallowed'  in  England,   and   instructions 
were  sent  to  Nicholson  to  consent  to  no  new  law  for  cre- 
v  ating  a  further  paper  currency,  nor  to  any  act  for  divert- 
ing the  sinking  funds  already  established.      The  Assem- 
bly used  every  art  to  induce  the  governor  to  disregard 
these  orders.     But,  anxious  as  he  was  to  please,  the  risk 
of  removal  was  more  than  he  dared  encounter.      As  no 
more  paper  money,  could  be  had,  a  law  was  passed  mak- 
ing rice,  at  certain  fixed  rates,  a  legal  tender  in  payment 
of  debts. 

The  Assembly  showed  its  dissatisfaction  by  stickling 

1724.  for  privileges,  and  the  governor  found  occasion  to  lament 

the  daily-  growth  of  the  «  spirit  of  commonwealth  max- 


•    I 

PAPER  MONE'Y  IN  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         29  J 
ims  both  in  church  and  state,"  partly,  as  he  supposed,  CHAPTER 

XXIII 

"  by  the  influence  of  the  New  Englanders,"  who  car, 
ried  on  a  brisk  trade  with  Charleston.      Nicholson,  how-  1724. 
ever,  on  his  departure  for  England,  received  a  vote  of 
thanks  from  the  Assembly.     He  left  the  administration  1725.' 
to  Middleton,  president  of  the  council. 

The  circulating  paper,  already  reduced  to  £87,000, 
was  likely  soon  to  be  entirely  paid  off.  Apprehending  a 
scarcity  of  money,  the  Assembly  tacked  a  clause  to  the  t)ec. 
annual  revenue  bill  stopping  the  withdrawal  of  the  paper. 
The  council  proposed  to  strike  out  this  provision  ;  but  the 
Assembly  denied  their  right  to  amend  money  bills,  and 
the  only  option  left  them  was  a  failure  of  supplies,  or  a 
breach  of  the  royal  instructions.  This  policy  was  fol- 
lowed up  the  next  year  by  a  bill  for  the  issue  of  ad-  1726. 
ditional  paper,  which,  however,  the  council  refused  to 
pass.  In  consequence  of  this  refusal,  an  association  wate 
entered  into  by  the  planters  not  to  pay  taxes,  under  pre-  1727. 
tense  of  inability  to  do  so,  unless  aided  by  the  issue  of  APriJ- 
paper.  Smith,  a  counselor  conspicuous  in  this  associa- 
tion, was  arrested  and  imprisoned.  -Chief-justice  Allen 
having  denied  him  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  on  the  ground 
that  his  offense  amounted  to  treason,  and  was  not  bail- 
able, two  hundred  and  fifty  armed  horsemen  entered 
Charleston  from  the  country,  and  compelled  his  libera- 
tion. They  presented,  at  the  same  time,  a  statement 
of  grievances,  including  the  council,  the  law,  the  chief 
justice,  the  lawyers,  public  ruin,  and  individual  distress. 
To  appease  them,  the  council  consented  to  call  a  special 
session  of  the  Assembly.  The  Assembly  impeached  the  Aug. 
chief  justice,  involved  themselves  in  a  violent  quarrel 
with  the  council,  adjourned  on  their  own  authority,  and 
when  presently  again  summoned,  refused  to  attend.  The 
counselors,  in  despair,  represented  to  the  Duke  of  New- 


t 


292  HISTORY   OF    THE   UNITED.  STAT-E  S. 

CHAPTER  eastle  that  "the  government  was  reduced  to  the  lowest 

XXUI 

extremity,"  that  "  the  royal  prerogative  was  openly  tram- 

1728.,  pled  on,"  and  the  commander-in-chief  and  the  council 
Dec.    'insulted  "  by  the  delegates  within  doors  and  the  tumult 
without." 

In  that  rebellion  which  wrenched  South  Carolina  from 
the  hands  of  the  proprietaries,  the  northern  province  did 
'not'  join  ;  and,  pending  the  proceedings  against  the  Caro- 
lina charter,  it  still  continued  under  proprietary  governors. 
Eden,  suspected  of  conniving  at  pirates,  as  mentioned  in 
1723.  the   previous    chapter,    was    succeeded   by    Burrington, 
whose  "  misdeeds  and  extravagance"  soon  caused  his  re- 
1725.  moval.      The  office  was  then  given  to  Sir  Richard  Ev- 
erard,  in  corruption  and  weakness  a  match  for  Eden  and 
1715*  Burrington.      It  was  during  Eden's  administration,   at 
Nov.     ua  generai  biennial  Assembly,  held  at  the  house  of  Cap- 
*     tain  Richard  Sanderson,  at  Little  River,"  that  the  earliest 
\  ;  ,  extant  laws  of  North  Carolina  were  enacted.     The  enact- 
ing style  is,  "  By  his  Excellency  the  Palatine,  and  the 
rest  of  the  true  and  absolute  Lords  Proprietors  of  Caro- 
lina, by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  present 
General  Assembly  for  the  northeast  part  of  the  said  prov- 
ince."     The  previous  legislation  of  the  province  was  re- 
vised, and  all  laws  not  specially  re-enacted  were  repeal- 
ed,    Queen  Anne  had  died  fifteen   months  before  the 
meeting  of  this  Assembly,  but,  to  judge  from  one  of  their 
acts  quoted  below,  that  fact  was  not  yet  known  in  North 
Carolina. 

Among  the  laws  contained  in  this  revisal  were'  "*  an 
,  act  for  the  better  observing  the  Lord's  day,  and  also  for 
.suppressing  profaneness,  immorality,  and  divers  other 
vicious  and  enormous  sins;"  "  an  act  fqr  establishing 
the  churfch,  and  appointing  select  vestries  ;"  "  an  act  for 
liberty  of  conscience,  and  that  the  solemn  affirmation  of 


LAWS'OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

the  people  called  Quakers  shall  be  accepted  instead  of  an  CHAPTER, 
oath ;"  and  an  act  reciting  "  that  th-e  laws  of  England  .. '.  . 
are  the  laws  of  this  government,"  and  enacting  that  17 Jo. 
"the  common  law  is  and  shall  be  in  force,"  "  except 
what  relates  to  the  practice  of  courts,"  as  to  which  rules 
were  to  be  framed,  to  be  approved  by  the  governor  and 
council,  and  to  continue  valid  till  set  aside  by  the  As- 
sembly. All  English  statutes  were  also  declared  to  be 
in  force,  "  although  this  province  or  the  plantations  in 
general  are  not  therein  named,"  made  for  maintaining 
the  queen's  royal  prerogative,  and  her  personal  security 
and  rights  to  the  crown;  also  all  statutes  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  church,  the  toleration  of  Protestant  dis- 
senters, the  privileges  of  the  people,  the  security  of  trade, 
limitation  of  actions,  preventing  immorality  and  fraud, 
and  confirming  inheritances  and  titles  to  land.  The  As-. 
sembly,  however,  seem  to  have  claimed  a  joint  right 
of  legislation  on  these  subjects.  By  a  limitation  act  of 
their  own,  seven  years'  possession  of  land  barred  the 
right  of  entry. 

The  issue  of  depreciated  paper  bills  as  an  expedient 
for  the  relief  of  pecuniary  distress  entered  largely  into 
colonial  politics  in  New  England  as  well  as  in  South 
Carolina.  We  have  seen  how  the  exigencies  of  the  lates 
war,  especially  the  futile  expeditions  for  the  conquest  of 
Canada,  had  occasioned  in  the  six  northern  colonies  re- 
peated issues  of  bills  of  credit.  The  promptitude  neces- 
sary in  getting  up  those  expeditions  made  it  impossible 
to  wait  for  the  collection  of  taxes,  while  the  scarcity  of 
capital  made  it  difficult,,  if  not  impracticable,  to  borrow 
money  in  the  usual  way.  Bills  of  credit,  declared  a 
legal  tender  in  all  payments,  served  the  purposes  of  a 
forced  loan,  without  encountering  the  same  obstacles,  or 
exciting  the  same  clamor.  Even  their  depreciation  tend- 


294  -HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED   $TATES. 


CHAPTER  ed  'to  mkke  them  popular  ;  for  debtors,  always  a  large 
class,  especially  in  a  new  country,  were  thus  enabled  to 
discharge  their  -debts  at  a  discount,  while  a  rise  of 
prices  in  pro-portion  to  the  appreciation  gave  a  fallacious 
appearance  of  general  prosperity.  The  scarcity  of  mon- 
ey, in  other  words,  the  depreciation  of  the  currency, 
caused  by  the  rapid  diminution  of  the  circulating  paper, 
paid  off  after  the  peace  by  the  taxes  imposed  to  redeem 
.  it-,  was  represented  as  a  public  calamity  ;  for  which,  in 
Massachusetts,  a  remedy  was  sought  in  that  same  paper 
money  loan  system  already  introduced  into  South  Caro- 
lina —  a  system  ^either  more  nor  less  than  a  contrivance 
for  raising  out  of  the  public  at  large  a  fund  to  be  lent  out 
as  #  trading  capital  to  the  more  active  and  adventurous 
1714.  members  of  the  community.  Thus  commenced  a  scheme 
of  policy,  under  one  shape  or  another  indefatigably  ad- 
vocated from  that  d,ay  to  this  —  a  scheme  devised  and 
sustained  by  those  active  business  men,  as  they  are  call- 
ed, who  strive  to  make  the  capital  of  the  rich  and  the 
labor  of  the  poor  .  alike  subservient  to  their  plans  of  profit 
-  —  a  class  numerically  small,  but  whose  superior  activity 
and  sagacity  have  given  them  always  a  decided  and  gen- 
erally a  controlling  weight  in  our  public  affairs. 

There  was  very  general  agreement  in  Massachusetts 
in  favor  of  the  loan  system,  but  a  difference  arose  as 
,tp  the  precise  method  of  carrying  it  out.  The  more  ad- 
.  .  venturous  speculators  proposed  a  private  bank,  to  be  in- 
corporated by  the  General  Court,  to  issue  bills  on  its 
own  responsibility.  Others,  who  preferred  the  indorse- 
ment of  the  colony,  proposed  to  issue  colony  bills  as  here- 
tofore, to  be  lent  on  landed  security  for  a  term  of  years  ; 
the  interest  and  five  per  cent,  of  the  principal  to  be  paid 
annually.  Thus,  in  twenty  years,  it  was  plausibly  ar- 
gtied,  the  whole  issue  would  be  paid  off,  while  the  annual 


PAPER  MONEY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS. 

interest  might  go  in  the  mean  time,  in  lieu  of  taxes,  to-  CHAPTER 

ward  the  current  ^expenses  of  the  province.    A  very  small 1_ 

party  of  capitalists  opposed  all  bills  of  credit,  an<J  ar-  1714. 
gued  in  favor  of  a  specie  currency ;  but  as  the  province 
was  bent  on  paper  money  of  some  sort,  they  supported 
the  provincial  issue,  called  the  public  bank,  as  the  lesser 
evil  of  the  two.  Dudley,  who  had  grown  of  late  years 
less  excessively  unpopular,  at  least  among  the  wealthier 
class,  adopted  that  side.  After  a  violent  struggle  be- 
tween the  two  parties  in  the  General  Court,  the  public 
bank  prevailed;  and  £50,000  in  provincial  bills  of  credit 
were  issued  on  that  scheme,  and  distributed  among  the 
counties  in  the  ratio  of  their  taxeg,  to  be  put  into,  the 
hands  of  trustees,  and  lent  out,  in  sums  from  £50  to 
£500,  on  mortgages,  reimbursible  in  five  annual  install- 
ments. 

Thus  disappointed  in  their- projects,  the  party  of  the 
private  bank  exerted  themselves,  and  not  without  suc- 
cess, for  the  removal  of  Dudley,  whose  interest  in  En- 
gland had  been  greatly  diminished  by  the  total  change 
of  ministry  consequent  upon  the  accession  of  the  new 
dynasty.  General  Stanhope,  the  new  secretary  of  state,, 
gave  the  government  of  Massachusetts  to  Colonel  Bur- 
gess, "  a  necessitous  person,"  a  late  fellow-soldier  of 
Stanhope's,  whose  loose  manners  would  hardly  have  suit- 
ed the  taste  of  New  England.  It  was  thought  also  that, 
being  poor,  he  would  favor  the  party  of  the  private  bank. 
Such,  in  fact,  was  the  inclination  of  William  Tailer,  ap- 
pointed lieutenant  governor  at  the  same  time,  and  who 
held  for  a  few  months  the  administration  of  the  province. 
Jonathan  Belcher,  whose  grandfather,  one  of  the  earliest 
immigrants,  had  been  a  petty  inn-keeper  at  Cambridge, 
but  whose  father,  a  ship-master  at  the  time  of  Philip's 
war,  had  acquired  a  large  fortune  by  trade,  happened 


296  HISTORY    OF    THE    U  NITED>  STATES. 

CHAPTER  then  to  be  in  London,  returning  from  Ms  travels  on  the 
.  .     ' ;  Continent.      Being   a   warm   opponent   of  the    private 
1714.  bank,  in  conjunction  with  Dummeri  the  agent,  he  ad- 
vanced XlQOO  to  induce  Burgess  to  relinquish  his  ap- 
pointment in  favor  of  Samuel  Shute. 

.Shute's  brother,  afterward  Lord  Barrington,  was  the 
parliamentary  champion  of  the  dissenting  interest. 
Shute  himself,  like  Burgess,  was  a  colonel  in  the  army, 
in  'which  capacity  he  had  seen  service ;  a  frank,  honest 
man,  but  indolent,  irritable,  and  without  any  of  that 
cool  self-possession  and  talent  for  intrigue  for  which 
Dudley  was  so  distinguished — accomplishments  almost 
essential  for  a  successful  provincial  governor.  Lieu- 
tenant-governor Tailer  was  also  superseded,  that  post 
being  secured  for  William  Dummer,  a  cousin  of  the 
•  1716.  agent.  On  Shute's  arrival  in  Massachusetts,  he  threw 
Oct-  himself  without  reserve  into  the  arms  of  the  party  of  the 
public  bank,  and  became,  in  consequence,  very  obnox- 
ious to  the  other  party,  disappointed  at  gaining  nothing 
by  the  change.  In  hopes  to  stop  the  clamor  about  the 
decay , of  trade  and  the  scarcity  of  money,  complaints 
which  Shuto  himself  re-echoed  in  his  inaugural  speech, 
-  an  additional  d£lOO,000  of  paper  was  issued,  to  be  dis- 
tributed among  the  counties,  and  let  out  on  loan  as  be- 
fore. These  bills  soon  depreciated,  and  Shute  became 
urgent  with  the  General  Court  to  devise  some  means 
for  restoring  their  value.  But  exhortations  on  that  head 
were  very  -  coldly  received.  Additional  issues  of  paper 
continued  the  favorite  panacea  for  a  pecuniary  pressure, 
which  elicited  loud  complaints — a  pressure,  it  would 
seem,  real  enough,  originating  in  the  stoppage  of  that 
deriiand  for  provisions  to  supply  the  fleets  and, armies 
formerly  kept1  up  in  ^he  American  seas,  a  source,  dur- 
ing the  late  war,  of  large  profits  to  New  England  and 


IRON-WORKS  IN   THE    COLONIES.'  297 

the  middle  colonies.     Among  other  measures  of  relief,  the  CHAPTER 

XXIII 

General  Court,  like  the  Carolina  Assembly,  resorted  to, 

the  old  plan  of  allowing  taxes  to  be  paid  in  certain  arti-  172f(). 
cles  of  country  produce  at  fixed  rates.      So  far  was  the 
issue  of  paper  pushed,  that  £500  were  put  out  in ,"  pen- 
nies,  twopences,   and  threepences,"   stamped  on  parch- 
ment, the  first  round,  the  second  square,  the  third  "  six  •  . 
angular."      Rhode  Island  contributed  her  share  toward  1721. 
the   relief   of   commercial   distress,  in   a  paper   money 
"  bank,"  or  stock  of  £40,000,  to  be  lent  out  to  the  in- 
habitants, the  interest  payable  in  hemp  or  flax,  upon  the    • 
production  of  which  increased  bounties  had  just  been  of- 
fered in  an  amended  act  of  Parliament  for  encouraging 
the  production  of  naval  stores  in  America. 

The  narrow  mercantile  jealousy  of  the  mother  coun-  1719. 
try  had  just  been  manifested  in  a  resolution  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  "  that  the  erection  of  manufactories  in  the 
colonies  tended  to  lessen  their  dependency  on  Great  Brit- 
ain."    Into  the  bill  for  increasing  and  regulating  the  boun-  1721. 
ties  on  colonial  naval  stores,  the  British  iron-masters  pro- 
cured the  insertion  of  a  clause  to  prohibit  the  production 
of  iron  in  the  colonies.      But  remonstrances  were  made 
by  the   colonial  agents,  and  this  clause  was   dropped. 
New  England  had  already  six  furnaces   and  nineteen  • 
forges.     The  product  of  iron  was  still  more  active  in 
Pennsylvania,   whence  a   supply  was  furnished  to  the 
other  colonies.     The  ship-carpenters  in  the  Thames  com- 
plained u  that  their  trade  was  hurt,  and  their  workmen  1724. 
emigrated,  since  so  many  vessels  were  built  in  New  En-    „.. 
gland."      But  the  Board  of  Trade  despaired  of  a  remedy,-     . 
since  it  would  hardly  do  to  prohibit  the  building  of  ships 
by  the  colonists. 

'    .  Meanwhile  a  warm  quarrel  had  arisen  between  Bridget ,'  1717. 
the  king's  surveyor  of  the  woods,  a.nd  the  people  of  Maine,  ' 


HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  as  to  the- property  of  the  pine-trees  in  that  province,  all 
..  of  which,  fit  for  masts,  growing  on  any  uninclosed  land, 

'1.717.  were  claimed  as  the  king's,  under  a  clause  in  the  char- 
ter and  the  acts  of  Parliament  already  mentioned.     Eli- 
'  sha  Cooke ,  a  member  of  the  council,  son  of  the  former 
,    popular  leader  of  that  name,  and  a  successor  to  his  po- 
litical influence,  espoused  the  cause  of  the  woodsmen. 
He  maintained  that  within  the  limits  of  Gorges's  ancient 
province,  as  purchased  by  Massachusetts,  the  property 
qf  the  pine-trees  belonged,  not  to  the  king,  but  to  the 

1718.  inhabitants  in  common.      On  Shute's  rejection  of  Cooke 
as  a  counselor,  the  House  took  up  the  quarrel,  and,  in 

1719.  reply^  to  a  speech  of  Shute1s  on  the  subject,  sent  in  an 
answer,  or  remonstrance,  in  which  they  charged  Bridg- 
er  with  gross  malpractices  in  office.      The  governor  re- 
quested them  not  to  print  that  paper,  and  when  they  in- 
sisted on  doing  so,  he  told  them  that  he  had  the  power 

/  over  the  press,  and  would  prevent  it.  He  alluded  to  a 
clause  in  his  instructions,  continued  since  the  time  of 

'  Andros,  by  which  the  governor  was  charged  to  allow  no 
printing  without  his  special  license.  Upon  the  strength 
of  this  instruction,  Shute  wished  to  prosecute  the  print- 
ers, but  the  attorney  general,  when  he  came  to  frame  an 
indictment,  could  find  no  law  for  it;  and  the  Board  of 
Trade,  when  applied  to  for  advice,  returned  no  answer. 
Such  was  the  commencement  of  free  printing  in,  Massa- 
chusetts. The  ice  thus  broken,  pamphlets  began  to  is- 
sue from  the  press,  especially  on  the  paper  money  con- 
troversy \  but  this  liberty,  as  we  shall  soon  see,  was  by 
no  means  yet  very  perfect. 

1720.  The  next  jear  the  House  chose  Cooke  for  their, speaker, 
^fay.     rj.jle  g0vernor  rejected  him  ;  and  when  the  House  disput- 
ed his  right  upon  that  point,  he  .dissolved  the  court.     A 

July/   new  court  was  immediately  called,  and,  not  to  interrupt 


TROUBLES  WITH  THE  EASTERN  INDIANS.      299 

the  public  business,  another  speaker  was  chosen  ;  but  the  CHAPTER 

governor  and  the  House  were  mutually  imbittered,  and 

the  question  of  right  remained  undecided.  1720. 

Pending  this  quarrel  with  the  governor,  difficulties 
began  to  arise  on  the  eastern  frontier.  In  conformity, 
with  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  the  French  had  withdrawn 
from  the  peninsula  of  Nova  Scotia  into  the  island  of  St. 
John's,  and  especially  of  Cape  Breton,  where  presently' 
they  began  to  build  the  formidable  fortress  of  Louisburg, 
overlooking  not  only  the  entrance  of  the  G  ulf  of  St.  Law- 
rence, but  the  coasts,  also,  of  Nova  Scotia  and  New  En- 
gland. Soon,  however,  a  dispute  arose  as  to  the  extent 
of  Acadie,  as  ceded  by  the  recent  treaty.  According  to 
the  French,  this  cession  included  only  the  peninsula 
now  known  as  the  British  province  of  Nova  Scotia. 
The  whole  country  along  the  north  shore  of  the  Bay  of 
Fundy  as  far  west  as  the  Kennebec,  if  not,  in  fact,  a 
part  of  Canada,  was  claimed  at  least  as  the  territory 
of  the  independent  tribes  who  possessed  it.  The  Jes- 
uit mission,  still  kept  up  on  the  Penobscot,  and  espe- 
cially Father  Rasles  and  his  village  of  Norridgewocks, 
on  the  Upper  Kennebec,  were  objects  of  great  jealousy 
in  Massachusetts.  Shortly  after  Shute's  arrival  he  had 
held  a  conference  with  these  eastern  tribes,  who  could 
muster  about  five  hundred  warriors.  Constant  encroach- 
ments on  their  lands  kept  them  in  very  bad  humor,  and 
soon  led  to  retaliations  on  their  part.  On  the  part  of 
the  colonists  there  was  a  strong  disposition  for  war ;  but 
the  governor  was  reluctant,  and  hence  a  new  suty'ect  of. 
quarrels. 

.    Matters  were  not  at  all  mollified  at  the  next  General  1721. 
Court.     Already,  as  a  symptom  of  dissatisfaction,  £,WQ 
had  been  curtailed  from  Shute's  salary  of  £1200  in  De- 
preciating paper.      The  House  now  refuged  to  vote  any    May. 


300          •   HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

"V 

CHAPTER  salary  at  all,  either  to  him  or  the  other  officials,  many 

_J of  whom  had  seats  in  the  council,  unless  the  governor 

1721.  would  first  assent  to  certain  bills  and  resolves  which  they 
were  bent  upon  passing.  Dummer,  the  agent  in  En- 
gland, because  he  had  advised  more  moderation  of  con- 
duct, was  abruptly  dismissed  from  office.  The  House 
also  adjourned  for  a  week  without  asking  the  governor's 
consent,  which  he  maintained  they  had  no  power  to  do 
under  the  charter,  and  he  dissolved  them  in  consequence. 
Ang,  A  new  Assembly  immediately  called  yielded  so  far  as 
to  vote  Shute  £500  of  the  depreciated  currency  as  half 
a  year's  salary,  being  a  curtailment  of  another  £100: 
and  after  a  session  passed  in  disputes,  the  governor  and 
council  were  at  length  induced  to  agree  to  a  secret  ex- 
pedition for  seizing  Rasles,  accused  of  stimulating  the 
Eastern  Indians  to  hostility. 

Nov.  An  adjourned  session  was  interrupted  by  the  small-pox, 
which,  after  an  interval  of  twenty  years,  had  broken  out 
in  Boston,  and  occasioned  the  greatest  alarm.  In  the 
•  published  transactions  of  the  Royal  Society,  of  which 
he  w^as  a  member,  Cotton  Mather  had  seen  some  letters 
from  Turkey,  giving  an  account  of  the  practice  there  of 
communicating  the  small-pox  by  inoculation,  thus  ena- 
bling the  patient  to  prepare  for  the  disorder,  and  to  go 
thorough  it  more  safely  than  when  taken  in  the  natural 
way.  With  characteristic  zeal  and  enthusiasm,  Mather 
took  hold  of  this  idea  ;  and  having  applied  in  vain  to  the 
three  or  four  other  medical  practitioners  of  Boston,  he  at 
last  prevailed  on  Zabdiel  Boylston  to  try  the  experiment, 
A  native  of  the  colony,  a  man  of  skill  a;nd  reputation 
in  his  profession,  humane  and  courageous,  Dr.  Boylston 
commenced  upon  his  own  son.  The  first  trials  were  'suc- 
cessful;  yet  it  required  no  little  courage  to  go  on.  In- 
oculatiort  was  violently  opposed  by  the  other  practition- 


INOCULATION  IN  BOSTON.        •'.,.,      .       3  ()  j. 

ers,  headed  by  Dr.  Douglas,  a  pragmatical  Scotchman.  CHAPTER 

Several  pamphlets  published  on  the  subject  prove,  by  the 

virulence  of  their  style,  the  excitement  of  the  disputants.  1721. 
The  new  practice  was  denounced  as  an  infusion  of  ma- 
lignity into  the  blood  ;  a  species  of  poisoning  ;   an  inter- 
ference with  the  prerogatives  of  Jehovah,  whose  right  it 
was  to  wound  and  to  heal ;   an  attempt  to  thwart  God,     '  , 
who  sent  the  small-pox  as  a  punishment  for  sins,  and 
whose  vengeance  would  thus  be  only  provoked  the  more. 
Many  "sober,  pious  people"  thought  that,  if  any  of      • 
Boylston's  patients  should  die,  he  ought  to  be  treated  as 
a  murderer.     An  exasperated  mob  paraded  the  streets 
with  halters  in  their  hands,  threatening  to  hang  the  in- 
oculators.     A  lighted  grenade,  filled  with  combustibles, 
was  thrown  into  Cotton  Mather's  house,  into  the  very 
sick  chamber  of  an  inoculated  patient. 

Against  superstition  and  prejudices  thus  inflamed  by 
the  members  of  a  learned  profession,  which  ought  to  take 
the  lead  in  natural  science,  Cotton  Mather  made-  a  nobta 
stand,  hardly  to  have  been  expected  from  one  so  active 
thirty  years  before  in  the  witchcraft  delusion.  His 
venerable  father,  now  very  old,  and  the  other  ministers 
of  Boston,  sustained  him  ;  but  their  united  influence 
could  hardly  stem  the  popular  torrent.  The  selectmen 
took  strong  ground  against  inoculation :  at  the  late  ses- 
sion of  the  General  Court,  a  bill  had  passed  the  House  «  .  , 
to  prohibit  the  practice;  but  it  was  thrown  out  by  the 
council.  In  the  end  the  inoculators  completely  triumph- 
ed. The  very  same  month  in  which  Boylston  and  Ma- 
ther commenced  their  experiments  in  Boston,  inoculation 
was  introduced  into  England  by  the  witty  and  accom- 
plished Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montague,  lately  returned 
from  a  residence  at  Constantinople.  The  success  of  this 
practice  soon  silenced  all  opposition  ;  and  it,  continued  in 


" 

.V 

*   *  lit* 


302  HISTORY  OF*  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


extensive  use  until  superseded  by  the  more  brilliant  dis- 
f  Jenner.     When  Boylston  visited  England  a 


few  years  after,  he  was  received  with  distinguished  at- 
tention, and  elected  a  member  of  the  Royal  Society. 

1722.  The  expedition  against  Norridgewock,  which  the  gov- 
'     ernor  had  delayed,  but  afterward,  on  the  remonstrance 

of  the  court,  had  sent  forward,  was  not  successful  in 
seizing  Rasles  ;  but  his  papers,  which  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  assailants,  who  pillaged  the  church  and  the  mis- 
sionary's house,  strengthened  suspicions  that  the  Indians 
were  encouraged  by  Canadian  support.  The  Indians 

July,  retorted  the  attack  on  Norridgewock  by  burning  Bruns- 
wick, a  new  village  recently  established  on  the  Andros- 
coggin.  The  tribes  of  Nova  Scotia  also  joined  in  the  war. 
At  the  Gut  of  Canso  they  seized  seventeen  fishing  ves- 
sels belonging  to  Massachusetts,  several  of  which,  how- 
ever, were  presently  recovered,  with  severe  loss  to  the 
Indian  captors. 

When  the  General  Court  came  together,  new  disputes 
arose  between  the  governor  and  the  House  as  to  the  con- 
duct of  the  war,  of  which  the  representatives  sought  to 
engross  the  entire  management.  Disgusted  by  the  op- 
position of  an  Assembly  "more  fit,"  as  he  thought,  "for 
the  affairs  of  farming  than  for  the  duty  of  legislators," 
Shute  had  secretly  obtained  leave  to  return  home  ;  and, 

Dec.  .  without  giving  any  intimation,  of  his  purposes,  he  sud- 
denly left  the  province.  The  administration,  by  his  de- 
parture, passed  into  the  hands  of  Dummer,  the  lieuten- 
ant governor,  who  remained  at  the  head  of  affairs  for  the 
next  six  years. 

1723.  The  General  Court  soon  accommodated  with  Dum- 
mer the  quarrel  which  Shute  had  left  on  his  hands.      He 
yielded  to  some  of  their  demands,  and  they  abandoned 
others.     The  Indian  war  proved  expensive  and  annoying, 


•  - 


vyMFv*-'' 

•<$&'v-.  .*'"'- 

WAR  WITH  THE  EASTERN  INDIANS.  3  Q  3 

and  large  issues  of  paper  money  became  necessary  to  CHAPTER 

xxm. 
carry  it  on.  

Connecticut,  applied  to  for  aid  against  the  Indians,  1723. 
professed  scruples  as  to  the  justice  of  the  war,  and  beg- 
ged Massachusetts  to  take  care  lest  innocent  blopd  were 
shed.  These  scruples  were  presently  quieted,  and  Con- 
necticut furnished  the  quota  asked  for.  Attempts  re- 
peatedly made  to  engage  the  assistance  of  the  Mohawks 
were  less  successful.  They  not  only  refused  to  take  up 
the  hatchet,  but,  what  was  still  more  unpalatable,  they 
advised  Massachusetts,  as  a  sure  means  of  peace,  to  re- 
store the  Indian  lands  and  prisoners. 

The  attacks  of  the  Indians  extended  along  the  whole 
northern  frontier  as  far  west  as  Connecticut  River.     To 
cover  the  towns  in  that  valley,  Fort  Dummer  was  pres- 
ently erected,  on  the  site  of  what  is  now  Brattleborough,  1724. 
the  oldest  English  settlement  within  the  limits  of  the  ' 
present  state  of  VERMONT. 

Having  seized  an  armed  schooner  in  one  of  the  east- 
ern harbors,  a  party  of  Indians  cruised  along  the  coast, 
and  captured  no  less  than  seven  vessels.  It  was  deem- 
ed necessary  to  strike  some  decisive  blow.  Norridge- 
wock  was  surprised  by  a  second  expedition ;  Rasles  was  August; 
slain,  with  some  thirty  of  his  Indian  disciples;  the  sacred' 
vessels  and  "  the  adorable  body  of  Jesus  Christ"  were 
scoffingly  profaned ;  the  chapel  was  pillaged  and  burned, 
and  the  village  broken  up. 

The  premium  on. scalps  was  raised  to  £100,  payable, 
however,  in  the  depreciated  currency.     Lovewell,  a  noted 
partisan,  surprised,  near  the  head  of  Salmon  Falls  River,  1725. 
ten  Indians  asleep  round  a  fire.     He  killed  them  all,  and     Feb< 
marched  in  triumph  to  Dover,  with  their  scalps  hooped 
and  elevated  on  poles.      In  a  second  expedition  he  was    May. 
less  successful.     Near  the  hea4  of  the  Saco,  on  the  mar- 


304  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

of  a  pond,  he 'fell  into  an  Indian  ambush,  and  was 
at  ^the  first  fire  with  eight  of  his  men.     The  rest 
1725.  defended  themselves  bravely  through  a  whole  day's  fight, 
repulsed  -the  Indians,  and  made  good  their  retreat. 

Embassadors,  meanwhile,  were  sent  to  Canada  to  re- 
monstrate against  the  countenance  given  there  to  the 
hostile  Indians ;  and  an  application  was  made  to  the 
king  to  compel  the  neighboring  colonies  and  the  Mo- 
hawks to  join  in  the  war.  The  Board  of  Trade  inclined 
.  «  to  favor  this  request ;  but  already  the  Penobscots  had 
proposed  a  peace,  which  the  colonists  were  very  glad  to 
accept ;  and  the  Norridgewocks  presently  came  into  it. 
Judicious  measures  were  taken  to  protect  the  Indians 
against  the  extortion  and  villainy  of  private  traders  by 
the  establishment  of  public  trading  houses  to  supply 
*  ; '""  .  them  with  goods  at  cost.  By  this  means  peace  was  pre- 
served for  many  years,  and  the  settlements  in  Maine 
and  INew  Hampshire  extended  without  interruption. 

The  degree  of  freedom  which  the  press  had  lately  ob- 
•  tained,  and  the  discussions  carried  on  in  pamphlets  as  to 
pa.per  money,  the  small-pox,  and  the  controversy  between 
Shute  and  the  representatives,  had  encouraged  James 
1722.  Franklin  to  set  up  a  newspaper  at  Boston,  called  the 
New  England  C  our  ant.  There  were  already  two  news- 
papers there — one  of  them  established  as  long  ago  as 
1704,  small  sheets  confined  to  advertisements  and  items 
of  newsT— but  the  Courant  was  the  first  American  news- 
paper that,  aspired  to  discuss  public  questions,  and  to 
guide  and  enlighten  public  opinion.  Yet  it  was  not  al- 
ways on  the  enlightened  side ;  for,  out  of  hostility  to  the 
Mathers  and  the  ministers,  it  joined,  in  the  popular  clam- 
or against  inpculation. l  One  of  its  articles,  in  relation 
to  a  'vessel  fitted  out  to  cruise  for  pirates,  was  construed 
by  the  General  Court  intp  a  contempt,  for  which  the 


,  •  ;  >v/-.'v,.* 

FIRST  FREE   PRESS   IN  AMERICA.  305 

publisher  was  committed  to  prison.  Some  essays  from  CHAPTER 
the  pen  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  then  a  youth  of  sixteen,  " 
an  apprentice  to  his  brother,  gently  satirizing  religious  1723. 
hypocrisy,  gave  still  greater  offense.  Hardly  was  Shute  Jan 
gone  when  the  two  Franklins  were  had  up  before  a 
joint  committee  of  the  council  and  the  House,  who 
charged  upon  the  paper  "  a  tendency  to  mock  religion. 
and  to  bring  it  into  contempt  ;"  that  "  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures are  therein  profanely  abused  ;  the  .  reverend  and 
faithful  ministers  of  the  Gospel  injuriously  reflected  on, 
his  majesty's  government  affronted,  and  the  peace  and 
good  order  of  his  majesty's  subjects  of  this  province  dis- 
turbed." Upon  the  strength  of  these  vague  charges, 
the  younger  Franklin  was  admonished.  His  brother 
was  forbidden  to  publish  the  Courant,  or  any  other  paper 
or  pamphlet,  unless  it  were  first  approved  and  licensed 
by  the  colonial  secretary.  This  order  was  evaded  by 
publishing  the  paper  in  the  name  of  the  younger  Frank- 
lin. But  greater  caution  was  necessary  ;  the  contributors 
to  whom  it  had  been  indebted  gradually  dropped  off,  the 
paper  lost  its  interest,  and  presently  perished  for  lack  of 
support  —  ominous  fate  of  the  first  free  press  in  America  ! 
The  Philadelphia  Mercury,  the  only  newspaper  in  the 
colonies  out  of  ^Boston,  commented  with  just  severity 
upon  the  re-establishment  of  a  censorship  in  Massachu- 
setts. But,  in  the  way  of  liberty,  the  publisher  of  that 
paper  had  little  to  boast.  Not  a  year  before,  on  account 
of  some  offensive  article,  he  had  been  summoned  before 
the  governor  and  council,  and  compelled  to  make  a  hum- 
ble apology,  receiving,  at  the  same  time,  an  intimation 
"  that  he  must  not  presume  to  publish  any  thing  re- 
lating to  the  affairs  of  this  or  any  other  of  his  majesty's 
colonies  without  the  permission  of  the  governor  or  secre- 
tary." 

II—  U 


306  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  In  the  century -since  its  settlement  New  England  had 
.  undergone  a  great  change.  The  austere  manners  of  the 
1723.  Puritan  fathers  were  still,  indeed,  preserved;  their  lan- 
guage was  repeated ;  their  observances  were  kept  up : 
their  institutions  were  revered ;  forms  and  habits  re- 
mained^— but  the  spirit  was  gone.  The  more  ordinary 
objects  of  human  desire  and  pursuit,  the  universal  pas- 
sion for  wealth,  political  squabbles  with  the  royal  gov- 
ernors, land  speculations,  paper  money  jobs,  and  projects 
of  territorial  and  personal  aggrandizement,  had  superse- 
ded those  metaphysical  disputes,  that  spiritual  vision,  and 
that  absorbing  passion  for  a  pure  theocratic  common- 
wealth which  had  carried  the  fathers  into  the  wilderness. 
Even  Cotton  Mather,  such  was  the  progress  of  opinion, 
boasted  of  the  harmony  in  which  various  religious  sects 
lived  together  in  Boston,  and  spoke  of  religious  persecu- 
tion as  an  obsolete  blunder. 

1718.  At  the  settlement  of  Elisha  Callender  over  the  Bos- 
ton Baptist  Church,  both  the  Mathers  had  assisted  at  the 
ordination.  Cotton  Mather  even  preached  the  sermon, 
which  was  printed,  with  the  title  "  Good  men  united." 
"  Cursed  be  the  anger,"  says  this  sermon,  "  for  it  is 
fierce ;  and  the  wrath,  for  it  is  cruel ;  good  for  nothing 
but  only  to  make  divisions  in  Jacob  and  dissensions  in 
Israel."  "  New  England,  also,  in  some  former  times,  has 
done  something  of  this  aspect  which  would  not  now  be  so 
well  approved  of,  in  which,  if  the  brethren  in  whose  house 
we  are  now  convened  met  with  any  thing  too  unbroth- 
erly,  they  now  with  satisfaction  hear  us  expressing  our 
dislike  of  every  thing  which  looked  like  persecution  in 
the  days  that  have  passed  over  us."  This  remarkable 
mollification  toward  the  Baptists  on  the  part  of  the  old 
leaders  in  the  Congregational  churches  is  partly,  indeed, 
to  be  explained  by  their  common  dislike  to  the  fashion- 


EPISCOPACY  IN  NEW  ENGLAND. 


307 


able  and  growing  Latitudinarianism,  to  which  now  be-  CHAPTER 

XTXITT 

gan  to  be  added — a  new  terror — an  increased  tendency       .    ..' 
to  Episcopalian  forms.  1723. 

In  the  quiet  bosom  of  the  English  Church,  in  which 
a  philosophic  latitudinarianism  was  fast  rising  ascendant 
over  High  Church  bigotry  on  the  one  hand,  and  Low 
Church  enthusiasm  on  the  other,  the  colonial  doubters 
and  free-thinkers,  and  all  those  to  whom  Puritan  aus- 
terity was  repulsive,  were  inclined  to  seek  refuge.  There 
are  always  many  whom  decent  ceremonies  delight.  The 
ambitious  hoped  to  recommend  themselves,  as  churchmen, 
to  the  authorities  at  home.  The  rich  and  polite  prefer- 
red a  worship  which  seemed  to  bring  them  into  sympa- 
thy with  the  English  aristocracy.  The  same  influences 
were  felt  in  America  as  in  England,  where  the  Dissent- 
ers were  fast  sliding  back  into  the  Church. 

Nor  were  these  influences  confined  to  laymen.  Some 
of  the  more  studious  and  more  aspiring  among  the  min- 
isters found  charms  in  the  idea  of  apostolic  succession,  and 
temptation  in  the  freedom  and  dignity  of  cures,  untroub- 
led by  the  obstinate  turbulence  of  stiff-necked  church 
members,  in  theory  the  spiritual  equals  of  the  pastor, 
whom,  in  order  to  manage,  it  was  necessary  to  humor 
and  to  suit.  Having  found  their  way  even  among  the 
primitive  townships  of  Connecticut,  these  ideas  received 
emphatic  expression  from  an  unexpected  quarter.  The 
Connecticut  College,  transferred  from  Say  brook  to  New  1716. 
Haven,  and  named  YALE,  after  a  benefactor,  a  native 
of  Connecticut,  who  had  given  something  to  it  from  a 
fortune  acquired  in  the  East  Indies,  had  been  lately  in-  1719. 
trusted  to  the  rectorship  of  Timothy  Cutler,  a  minister 
of  talent  and  distinguished  learning.  To  the  surprise 
and  alarm  of  the  good  people  of  New  England,  Cutler, 
with  the  tutor  of  the  college  and  two  neighboring  minis- 


308  HISTORY  -OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  ters,  took  occasion,  one  commencement  day,  to  avow  oon- 

XXIII 

version  to  Episcopacy — a  lapse  in  which  they  persisted, 
1722.  in  spite  of  an  elaborate,  and,  as  the  audience  thought, 
most  convincing  argument,  set  forth  on  the  spur  of  the 
moment  by  Governor  Saltonstall,  in  favor  of  Congrega- 
tionalism. Cutler,  was  forthwith  "excused"  from  all 
farther  service  as  rector  of  the  college ;  and  provision 
was  made  for  requiring  of  all  future  rectors  satisfactory 
evidence  of  "the  soundness  of  their  faith,  in  opposition 
to  Arminian  and  prelatical  corruptions."  This  prompt 
discipline,  and  the  vehement  outcry  raised  against  the 
deserters,  terrified  and  stopped  short  several  others,  inclin- 
ed, it  was  suspected,  to  join  in  the  revolt.  Defection, 
nevertheless,  continued  to  spread.  Cutler  became  rector 
of  a  new  Episcopal  church  in  Boston.  The  dismissed 
ministers  were  maintained  as  missionaries  by  the  English 
society  for  propagating  the  Gospel,  and  a  new  element, 
through  their- means,  was  gradually  introduced  into  the 
Religious  system  of  Connecticut,  destined,  a  century  aft- 
erward, to  work  a  political  revolution. 

The  jealousy  excited  by  the  secessions  in  Connecticut 
1724.  was  evinced  in  Massachusetts  by  the  trial  of  John  Check- 
ley,  afterward  ordained  as  an  Episcopal,  missionary,  and 
sent  to  preach  in  Khode.  Island,  for  publishing  Leslie's 
"  Short  and  Easy  Method  with  the  Deists,"  with  an  ap- 
pendix by  himself,  in  which  episcopal  ordination  was 
insisted  upon  as  necessary  to  constitute  a  Christian  min- 
ister. This  publication  was  charged  as  tending  "  to 
bring  into  contempt  and  infamy  the  ministers. of  the 
Holy  Gospel  established  by  law  within  his  majesty's 
province"  of  Massachusetts.  The  jury  having  found  a 
special  verdict'  stating  the  facts,  the  indictment  was  sus- 
tained by.  the  "court,  and  Checkley  was  fined  £,50. 
.  A  convention  of  all  the  Congregational  ministers  of 


LATITUDINARIANISM.  399 

'   t 
the  province  was  annually  held  at  Boston ;   but,  as  that  CHAPTER 

body  did  not  possess  any  ecclesiastical  authority,  they LJ 

petitioned  the  General  Court  to  authorize  a  synod  after  1725. 
the  example  of  former  times.  The  object,  no  doubt,  was 
to  strengthen  the  Congregational  churches  against  pre- 
latic  invasions.  While  this  petition  was  still  pending, 
the  Episcopalians  made  such  representations  in  England 
that  Dummer  received  a  sharp  reprimand  for  having  en- 
tertained it.  To  make  matters  sure,  the  holding  of  any 
such  synod  without  the  express  consent  of  the  king  was  •  , 

pronounced  by  the  English  crown  lawyers  illegal. 

So  far  from  regaining  the  ground  they  had  lost,  the 
Congregational  churches  found  it  necessary  still  to  yield. 
It  was  presently  conceded  to  the  Episcopalians  that  the  1727. 
ministerial  taxes  assessed  upon  them,  instead  of  going, 
as  hitherto,  to  the  Congregational  ministers,  should  be        l 
paid  over  to  their  own  clergy.     The  next  year  the  same  1728. 
justice  was  partially  extended  to  the  Baptists  and  Quak- 
ers.    Similar  laws  were  enacted  in  Connecticut  and  New  1729. 
Hampshire;    but  this  concession  was  long  clogged  by 
several  troublesome  provisos,  intended  to  confine  its  oper- 
ation within  the  narrowest  limits. 

Education  and  habit,  especially  in  what  relates  to 
outward  forms,  are  not  easily  overcome.  Episcopacy 
made  but  slow  progress  in  New  England.  A  greater" 
change,  however,  was  silently  going  on;  among  the  more 
intelligent  and  thoughtful,  both  of  laymen  and  ministers, 
Latitudinarianism  continued  to  spread.  Some  approach- 
ed even  toward  Socinianism,  carefully  concealing,  how- 
ever, from  themselves  their  advance  to  that  abyss.  The 
seeds  of  schism  were  broadly  sown  ;  but  extreme  caution 
and  moderation  on  the  side  of  the  Latitudinarians  long 
prevented  any  open  rupture.  They  rather  insinuated 
than  avowed  their  opinions.  Afraid  of  a  controversy,  in 


310  HISTORY.  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

i 

CHAPTER  which  they  were  conscious  that  popular  prejudice  would 

__ be;  all  against  them,  unsettled  many  of  them  in  their 

1725.  own  minds,  and  not  daring  to  probe  matters  to  the  bot- 
tom, they  patiently  waited  the  further  effects  of  that 
progressive  change  by  which  they  themselves  had  been 
borne  along.  ,To  gloss  over  their  heresies,  they  called 
themselves  Arminians ;  they  even  took  the  name  of 
moderate  Calvinists.  Like  all  doubters,  they  lacked 
the  zeal  and  energy  of  faith.  Like  all  dissemblers,  they 
were  timid  and  hesitating.  Conservatives  as  well  as 
Latitudinarians,  they  wished,  above  all  things,  to  enjoy 
their  salaries  and  clerical  dignities  in  comfort  and  in 
peace.  Free  comparatively  in  their  studies,  they  were 
very  cautious  in  their  pulpits  how  they  shocked  the 
fixed  prejudices  of  a  bigoted  people  whose  bread  they 
ate,  It  thus  happened  that  while  the  New  England 
theology,  as  held  by  the  more  intelligent,  underwent  de- 
cided changes,  the  old  Puritan  phraseology  was  still  gen- 
erally preserved,  and  the  old  Puritan  doctrines,  in  con- 
sequence, still  kept  their  hold,  to  a  great  extent,  .on  the 
mass  of  the  people.  Yet  remarkable  local  modifications 
of  opinion  were  silently  produced  by  individual  minis- 
ters, the  influence,  of  the  abler  Latitudiriarian  divines 
being  traceable  to  this  day  in  the  respective  places  of 
their  settlement. .  The  growth  of  Latitudiarianism  was 
the  natural  fruit  of  that  doctrine  of  the  Puritan  fathers, 
the  necessity  of  a  learned  ministry.  That  learning  on 
which  they  relied  against  papist  and  prelatic  supersti- 
tion on  the  one  hand,  and  Antinomian  enthusiasm  on  the 
other,  could  not  but  react  on  themselves.  As  the  exalt- 
ed religious  imagination  of  New  England  subsided  to  the 
common  level,  as  reason  and  the  moral  sense  began,  to 
struggle  against  the  overwhelming  pressure  of  religious 
awe,  a  party  inevitably  appeared  which  sought  by  learn- 


MASSACHUSETTS  AND  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.       3^ 
ed  glosses  to  accommodate  the  hard  text  of  the  Scrip-  CHAPTEK 

XXIII 

tures  and  the  hard  doctrines  of  the  popular  creed  to  the '__ 

altered  state  of  the  public  mind.  »t$fl,     1725. 

Shute  was  still-  prosecuting  his  complaints  in  En- 
gland, and  the  charter  was  thought  to  be  in  danger. 
The  representatives  wished  to  intrust  its  defense  to  an 
agent  appointed  by  their  sole  authority.  But  the  con- 
sent of  the  council  was  necessary  in  order  to  obtain  a 
vote  to  pay  him,  and  they  insisted  on  restoring  Dum- 
mer  ;  Cooke,  however,  the  popular  leader  in  the  House, 
was  appointed  his  colleague.  In  spite  of  all  the  efforts 
of  the  agents,  Shute  was  sustained  in  all  his  complaints ; 
and  the  General  Court  found  itself  obliged  to  accept  an  1726. 
explanatory  charter,  securing  to  the  governor,  in  express 
terms,  the  right  to  negative  the  elected  speaker,  and 
limiting  the  adjournment  of  the  House,  by  its  own  vote, 
to  not  more  than  two  days  at  once. 

Usher,  lieutenant  governor  of  New  Hampshire,  had 
been  superseded  by  George  Vaughan,  a  native  merchant,  1*716. 
whom  the  colony  had  employed  as  their  agent  in  Great 
Britain,  and  who  -seems  to  have x  cultivated  favor  by-  a 
memorial  suggesting  "  to  bring  New  England  into  the 
land  tax  of  Great  Britain."     Under  his  administration  1717. 
£15,000  of  paper  was  issued  on  the  loan  system.     Hav-        • 
ing  quarreled  with  the  Assembly  about  revenue,  and 
with  Shute  about  power,  he  was  soon  superseded  by  John     Dec. 
Wentworth,  grandson  of  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  New 
Hampshire. 

By  the  death  of  Allen  and  his  eldest  son,  the  people 
of  New  Hampshire  Were  delivered  from  that  series  of  law- 
suits by  which  they  had  long  been  harassed,  and  which 
they  had  stickled  at-jio  means, \not  even  mutilation  of 
records  and  forgery  of  Indian  deeds,  to  defeat.  In  the 
course  of  this  controversy  they  had  expressly  disclaimed 


312  HISTORY    OF   THE-  UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  any  pretensions  to  the  tends  beyond  the  boundaries  of  the 
settled  townships.      Those  lands,  it  was  conceded,  be- 
longed to  Allen.      Bat  his  heirs  were  minors  ;  Usher, 
ajso,  had  a  mortgage  upon  half  the  province ;  and  when 
it  was  desired  to   extend  the  settlements, -a  difficulty 
arose  about  giving  titles.     In  this  emergency,  Lieuten- 
ant-governor Wentworth.  assumed  to  grant  new  town- 
1719.  shipfc  in  the  name  of  the  king.      A  body  of  Presbyteri- 
ans, from  the  north  of  Ireland  settled  at  Londonderry. 
1722.  Grants  were  also  issued  for  Cluster,  Nottingham,  Bar- 
^      ring-ton,  and  Rochester,  thus  inclosing  the  old  towns  by 
'  an  exterior  range.      Settlement  was  delayed  by  the  In- 

1726.  dian  war;  but,  after  the   re-establishment'  of  peace,  a 
great  spirit  of  land  speculation  arose.      The  territory  on 
the  west  bank  of  the  Merrimac,  and,  indeed,  that  on  the 
east \bank,  within  three  milejs  of  the  river,  as  high  up,  at 
least,' as  the  confluence  of  its  two  principal  branches,  was 
claimed  by  Massachusetts  as  within  her  chartered  limits. 
Under  her  authority  a  township  was  laid  out,  and  a  set- 
tlement commenced  at  Penacook,  afterward  called  Rum- 
ford,  now  CONCORD,  the  present  capital  of  New  Hamp- 

1727.  shire.     The  next  year'  a  line  of  townships  was  surveyed, 
extending  from  the  Merrimac  to  the  Connecticut ;  and 
land  was  freely  granted  to  the  heirs  and  representatives 
of  the  soldiers  in  the  former  Indian  and  Canadian  wars. 
A  township   opposite    Penacook  was   bestowed   on   the 
.survivors  of  Lovewell's  fight.     The  Assembly  of  New 

Hampshire  disputed  the  territorial  claim  of  Massachu- 
setts, and,  in  the- spirit  of  rivalry,  granted  new  townships 
of  their  own.  The  surplus  population  of  the  old  towns 
was  not  sufficient  for  so  many  new  ones.  Many  years 
elapsed  before  the  grants  thus  made  were  settled.  The 
policy  of  encouraging  immigration  from  abroad,  which 
contributed  so  much  to  the  rapid  advancement  'of  Penn- 


CONNECTICUT   AND    RHODE   ISLAND.  3^3 

sylvania  and  Carolina,  never  found  favor  in  New  En-  CHAPTER 

XXIII 

gland.     Even  the  few  Irish  settlers  at  Londonderry  be- ; '__ 

came  objects  of  jealousy.      They  bestowed,  however,  a  1727. 
great  benefit  on  the  province  by  introducing  the  culture 
of  flax  and  the  potato. 

The  jealousy  so  long  felt  in  England  of  the  charters  1725. 
of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  found  new  expression 
in  a  project  for  uniting  these  colonies,  along  with  New 
Hampshire,  into  a  single  royal  province.     With  their 
usual  pertinacity,  they  declared  their  resolution  to  part 
with  none  of  their  privileges,  unless  "wrenched  from 
them."     On  the  death  of  Saltonstall,  Joseph  Talcot  was  1724. 
chosen  governor  of  Connecticut,  an  office  which  he  con- 
tinued to  hold,  by  annual  re-elections,  for  seventeen  years. 

The  long-pending  boundary  dispute  between  Connecti- 
cut and  Rhode  Island  carried  at  last  before  the  king  in  1720, 
council,  Deputy-governor  Jenckes  proceeded  to  London  as 
agent  for  Rhode  Island.     After  a  six  years'  suit,  the  Paw- 
catuck,  in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  the  charter,  was  1726. 
solemnly  established  as  the  Rhode  Island  boundary.  •  That 
little  colony  thus  secured  as  a  part  of  her  territory  the 
King's  Province,  or  Narraganset  country,  of  which  Massa-  -1727. 
chusetts  and  Connecticut  had  so  Ipng  labored  to  deprive 
her.      Shortly  after -his  return,  Jenckes  was  elected  gov- 
ernor, as  Cranston's  successor.      The  boundary  with  Con- 
necticut being  finally  run  and  marked,  the  late  Kind's  1729. 
Province  was  erected  into  a  third  county,  called  King's, 
no\y  Washington. 

Tired  of  "  begging  his  bread  of  those  who  took  rjleas-<  1714. 
ure  in  his  sufferings,"  -and  finding  that  threats  of  parlia- 
mentary interference  were  regarded  in  the  light  of  "bul- 
lying letters,"  having  obtained  from  the  new  ministers 
the  renewal  of  his  commission  as  governor  of  New  Ydrk 
and  New  Jersey,  Hunter  resorted  to  the  arts  of  manage- 


314  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHARTER  raent  and  conciliation,  of  which  he  was  a  master.     The 

xxm. 
^_  New  York  Assembly  consisted,  as  yet,  of  only  nineteen 

,  1715.  members.  At  a  new  election,  Hunter,  by  the  aid  of 
Lewis  Morris,  succeeded  in  securing  "  a  well-disposed 
majority."  Morris  was  rewarded  for  his  services  by  the 
appointment  of  chief  justice,  which,  however,  did  not 
disqualify  him,  according  to  the  practice  of  that  day, 
from  continuing  to  sit  as  a  member  of  the  House.  Ad- 
vantage was  taken  of  an  ill-considered  speech  on  the  part 
of  Mulford,  one  of  the  Long  Island  representatives,  and 
Hunter's  most  violent  opponent,  to  obtain  his  expulsion. 
The  governor's  party,  coalescing,  it  would  seem,  with 
the  fragments  of  the  Leislerians,  succeeded  in  carrying 
the  grant  of  a  revenue  for  five  years.  The  governor 
conceded,  in  return,  the  naturalization  of  the  Dutch  in- 
habitants; often, hitherto  denied.  He  also  consented  to 
duties  on  British  goods  imported,  and  to  discriminating 
tonnage  duties  on  ships  not  owned  in  the  colony — enact- 
ments lately  vetoed  in  the  case  of  Massachusetts,  and 
•  which  the  Board  of  Trade  again  pronounced  inadmissi- 
ble. The  first  taste  in  New  York  of  paper  money  was 
thed£lO,000  issued  for  the  Canada  expedition,  presently 
followed  by  £28,000  for  the  discharge  of  provincial 
debts  of  many  years'  standing,  but  for  which  the  Assem- 
bly had  refused  to  make  any  provision  till  this  convenient 
v  method  of  payment  was  found.  The  appetite  for  paper 
having  grown  with  indulgence,  a  third  issue  was  now 
made  for  Indian  presents  and  the'  erection  of  fortifications, 
to-be  sunk  in  twenty -one  years  by  an  excise  on  spirits. 
.  A  standing  revenue  and  a  subservient  Assembly  se- 
cured, Hunjer  ruled  without  obstruction  this  «  hitherto 
ungovernable  province."  This  good  understanding  was 
presently  sealed  by  another  paper  money  job  of  an  'extra- 
ordinary character.  To  the  outstanding  bills,  already 


NEW  YORK  AND  NEW  JERSEY.  3^5 

at  a  discount  of  three  for  one,  a  new  sum  of  £48,000  CHAPTER 

*  YVHT 

was  added,  under  pretense  of  paying  debts  formerly  over-          ' 
looked,  debts  alleged  to  be  due  to  the  counselors,  the  1717. 
members  of  the  Assembly,  and  their  friends  and  parti- 
sans, in  some  instances  for  services  rendered  by  the  fa» 
thers  of  some  of  them  thirty  years  before,  in  Leisler's 
time.     The  grand  jury  of  New  York  remonstrated  against 
this  procedure  as  alike  fraudulent  and  impolitic ;  where- 
upon the  delegates  ordered  the  jurors  into  custody,  and         ( 
gave  them  a  reprimand.     The  London  merchants,  suf.       t 
ferers  by  the  depreciation,  endeavored  to  obtain  a  royal 
negative.      But  as  the  bills  were  already  in  circulation, 
all  that  could  be  done  was  to  issue  an  order,  henceforth  1719. 
embodied  in  the  instructions  of  all  the  royal  governors, 
not  to  consent  to  any  paper  money  emissions  except  for 
the  payment  of  current  expenses. 

In  New  Jersey,  by  siding  with  the  Quakers  and  Bis-  1710. 
senters,  Hunter  made  his  administration  tolerably  easy. 
Here,  too,  he  was  supported  by  the  talents  of  Lewis 
Morris,  who  sat  in  the  council.  The  office  of  chief  jus- 
tice was  given  to  Jameson,  a  lawyer  of  New  York,  made 
popular  by  an  able  and  bold  defense  of  one  of  the  Pres- 
byterian ministers  prosecuted  by  Cornbury. 

In  a  new  Assembly,  presently  chosen,  the  Churchmen,  1710. 
having  obtained  a  majority,  elected  as  their  speaker  Dan- 
iel Coxe,  son  of  that  Coxe  already  mentioned  as  a  large 
proprietor  of  West  New  Jersey  and  the  claimant  of  Car- 
olana.  A  recent  act  of  Parliament,  made  perpetual  in 
England,  and  extended  to  the  colonies  for  five  years,  al- 
lowed the  affirmations  of  Quakers  in  certain  cases  ;  but 
the  formality  of  an  oath  was  expressly  required  in  qual- 
ifications for  office,  of  jurymen,  and  of  witnesses  in  capi- 
tal trials.  This  act  of  Parliament,  it  was  contended  by 
the  Churchmen,  operated  to  rejpeal  the  local  acts  of  New 


316          '  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  Jersey,  allowing  Quakers  to  affirm  in  all  cases.     Chief- 
k111     justice  Jameson  thought  differently,  and  ruled  otherwise  ; 


1716.  kut  the  clerk  of  his  court  placed  a  different  construc- 
tion on  the  law,  and  refused  to  administer  to  grand  ju- 
arymen  any  thing  but  an  oath.  The  chief  justice,  having 
fined  the  clerk  for  contempt,  was  himself  indicted  at  a 
court  of  quarter  sessions.  Hunter  put  forth  a  procla- 
mation on  behalf  of  his  chief  justice;  the  indictment 
was  quashed,  and  the  lawyers  who  had  promoted  it  were 
suspended  from  practice.  The  tables,  also,  were  turned 
upon  Coxe.  By  the  governor's  instructions  and  an  act 
of  Assembly,  sessions  were  to  be  alternately  held  at  Bur- 
lington arid  Amboy.  The  instructions  allowed  a  certain 
discretion,  and,  though  the  last  session  had  been  held  at 
Amboy,  Hunter  chose  to  call  a  new  one  at  the  same  place. 
Coxe  'and  his  partisans,  meaning  to  keep  the  governor 
out  of  any  supplies,  denounced  this  call  as  illegal,  and  re- 
fused to  attend.  By  great  exertions,  Hunter  got  a  bare 
majority  together,  whom  he  persuaded  to  choose  a  new 
speaker,-  and  to  expel  Coxe  and  the  other  absent  mem- 
bers for  "contempt  of  authority  and  neglect  of  the  serv- 
ice --of  their  country.",  So.me  of  the  expelled  members, 
re-elected,  were  not  allowed  to  take  their  seats.  From 
.  the-  Assembly  thus  purged,  Hunter  obtained  the  vote  of 
a  three  years'  revenue.  It  was  in  vain  that  Coxe  ap- 
pealed to  England  ;  Hunter  had  the  ear  of  the  Board  of 
•Trade,  and  Coxe's  charges  were  no  more  regarded  than 
those,  of  -Mulford.  '  , 

Having  returned  to  England  with  glowing  eulogies 
from  his  two  Assemblies  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey, 
.  Hunter  presently  obtained  there  the  government  of  Ja- 
maica, a  climate  more  suited  to  his  failing  health.  That 
of  New  Yo*k  and  New  Jersey  was  given  to  William 
Burnet,  a  son  of  the  celebrated  bishop.  Losses  by  the 


NEW  YORK  AND  NEW  JERSEY.  317 

'     4 

South  Sea  bubble  made  him  willing  to  accept  a  colonial  CHAPTER 

XXIII. 

appointment.      Hunter  had  taken  care  that  Schuyler, . 

who  administered  the  government  in  his  absence  as  pres- 
ident of  the  council,  should  not  be  allowed  to  dissolve 
the  Assembly,  nor  to  make  any  official  changes ;  and 
Burnet,  shortly  after  his  arrival,  by  the  convenient  aid  1720. 
of  Morris,  obtained  from  that  same  pliable  body  the  re- 
grant  of  a  five  years'  revenue. 

Though  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  spoke  of  the  Five  Nations 
as  "  subject  to  England,"  the  French  had  by  no  means 
given  over  their  attempts  to  establish  an  influence  and 
trade  with  the  western  clans  of  that  confederacy.  To 
counteract  their  designs,  Burnet  procured  an  act  of  As- 
sembly to  cut  off  the  French  traders  from  that  supply  of 
goods  for  the  Indian  traffic  which  they  were  accustomed 
to  obtain  at  Albany.  This  act  raised  a  great  clamor 
and  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  Albany  traders,  against 
which,  however,  Burnet  successfully  defended  himself. 

Having  been  a  prisoner  #mong  the  Senecas,  Joncaire 
had  acquired  a  great  influence  over  them,  and  had  been 
adopted  into  the  tribe.  Joined  by  a  party  from  Mon- 
treal, with  whom  went  Charlevoix,  the  able  historian  of 
New  France,  then  on  his  way  from  Canada  to  New  Or- 
leans, Joncaire  established  at  the  foot  of  the  Falls  of  1721. 
Niagara,  on  the  site  of  La  Salle's  temporary  post,  a 
permanent  trading  house. 

The  commissioners  under  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  for 
settling  the  boundaries  in  America  between  France  and 
Great  Britain  had  lately  met  at  Paris.  It  seems  to  have 
been  on  this  occasion  that  the  British  government  first 
%  became  aware  of  the  extensive  projects  entertained  by 
the  French  for  engrossing  the  interior  of  North  America. 
Advised  by  the  Board  of  Trade  "  to  extend  with  cau- 
tion the  English  settlements  .as  far  as  possible,  as  there 


318  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  was  no  great  probability  of  obtaining  an  arrangement  of 
•  ''  general  boundaries,"  Burnet  caused  a  trading  post  to  be 
1722.  established  at  Oswego,  thus  taking  possession  for  the 
province  of  New  York  of  the  south  shore  of  Lake  Onta- 
rio^ and  planting  the  English  standard,  for  the  first  time, 
upon  the  great  Western  waters.  The  English  claimed 
the  territory  north  and  west  of  Lake  Ontario  as  apper- 
taining to  the  Five  Nations,  and  in  particular  to  the 
Mohawks  and  Oneidas,  by  the  right  of  former  conquests 
from  the  Hurons.  They  pretended,  also,  that  by  a 
treaty  at  the  commencement  of  the  late  war,  of  which, 
fcqwever;  no  record  existed  except  an  entry  in  the  coun- 
cil books  of.  New  York,  the  hunting  grounds  of  the  Mo- 
hawks and  Oneidas  had  been  specially  placed  under  En- 

1726.  glish  protection.     In  a  treaty  at  Albany,  Burnet  succeed- 
ed in  obtaining  from  the  Mohawks  and  Oneidas  a  con- 
firmation of  this  alleged  old  grant ;   and  from  the  three 
Western  clans  the  cession,  also,  of  a  strip  of  territory,  six- 
ty miles  in  depth,  along  the  south  shore  of  Lakes  Onta- 
rio and  Erie,  from  Oswego  to  Oayuga,  now  Cleveland, 
"to-be  protected  by  the  English"  for  the  use  of  those 
tribes.     In  spite  of  the  remonstrances  of  the  -French,  and 
even  of  the  Oneidas,  who  liked  not  to  see  a  fortified  post 
in  their  neighborhood,  Burnet  strengthened  the  trading 

1727.  house  at  Oswego  by  a  small  fort  built  at  his  own  ex- 

.  pense,  since  he  could  not  prevail  on  the  Assembly  to  vote 
the  money.  But  Oswego  was  completely  outflanked  by 
.the  French  post  at  Niagara,  converted  also  into  a  fort, 
and  commanding  the  communication  with  the  upper  lakes 
and  the  Mississippi,  from  which  the  English  were,  as  yet, 
in  a  great  measure  excluded. 

While  thus  watchful  over  the  foreign  relations  of  his 
province,  Burnet's  domestic  administration  became  in- 
volved in  embarrassments.  He  was  a  man  of  education, 


NEW  YORK  AND  NEW  JERSEY.  3^9 

.  '•'  -4 

and.  though  he  came  to  America  to  better  his  fortunes,  CHAPTER 

xxm. 
was  by  no  means  grasping  or  avaricious  —  a  rare  virtue 


in  a  colonial  governor.  But  he  had  little  art  or  policy,  1726. 
and  he  spoke  his  mind  with  an  inconsiderate  freedom, 
which  mortified  the  pride  and  self-consequence  of  Schuy- 
ler,  Phillips,  and  Delancey,  leading  persons  in  the  aris- 
tocracy of  the  province.  Though  still  supported  by  Mor- 
ris, and  *by  Alexander  and  Golden  —  two  recent  Scotch 
immigrants  of  talent,  the  first  a  lawyer,  the  other  a  phy- 
sician, but  appointed  surveyor  general  and  master  ift 
chancery,  and  both  presently  made  counselors^  —  Burnet 
lost,  at  last,  the  control  of  the  Assembly.  Piqued  at 
their  behavior  in  refusing  a  continuation  of  the  standing 
revenue  for  a  longer  period  than  three  years,  and  that  at 
a  reduced  amount,  and  with  a  diminution  of  salaries,  Bur- 

^ 

net  dissolved  this  once  pliant  body,  whose  existence  had 
continued  for  eleven  years.  The  new  Assembly,  still  - 
more  unmanageable,  complained  of  the  Court  of  Chan-  1727. 
eery,  in  which  the  governor  presided,  as  having  been  es- 
tablished without  authority  of  law  —  a  complaint  urged 
twenty  years  before,  but  which  till  the  present  time  bad 
slumbered.  This  was  attacking  the  governor  in  a  tender 
point  ;  for  he  took  no  little  pride  and  pleasure  in  his  office 
of  chancellor.  Another  ground  of  complaint  on  the  part 
of  the  Assembly  was  the  sinecure  office  of  auditor  gen-  , 
eral,  which  served  to  give  to  Horace  Walpole,  son  of  the 
minister,  a  commission  of  five  per  cent,  on  the  colonial  rev- 
enue. Burnet  gave  offense  in  England  by  lack  of  zeal  in 
defending  this  job  ;  -  and  when  his  commission  expired  by 
the  demise  of  the  crown,  his  enemies  in  the  colony  pro- 
cured his,  removal.  He  received,  however,  by  way  of 
compensation,  the  government  of  Massachusetts,  which 
Shute  had  delayed  to  reassume,  and  which  he  now  resign- 
ed in  consideration  of  a  pension  of  d£400  out  of  the  West 
India  four  and  a  half  per  cent,  export  fluty. 


•»''.-     '   jr.    4         •" 
Burnet  had  some  trouble  with  his  first  New  Jersey 


320  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

•    • 

•£ 
CHAPTER 

Assembly,  but  by  consenting  to  the  emission  of  £40, 000 

1721.  in  bills  of  credit,  to  be  loaned  out  in  small  sums,  after 
the  plan  of  New  England  and  Carolina,  he  presently  ob- 
tained a  -continuation  of  the  revenue  act  for  five  years. 
His  defense  of  this  scheme  against  the  objections  of  the 
Board  of  Trade  confirmed  his  popularity,  and  it  was  not 
without  regret  that  the  Assembly  saw  him  removed. 

1715.  ..i  Gookin,  governor  of  Pennsylvania,  anticipating  the 
speedy  transfer  of  that  province  to  the  crown,  construed 
the  act  of  Parliament  already  mentioned  in  relation  to 
the  affirmation  of  Quakers  as  repealing  the  provincial 
statute  dispensing  with  the  use  of  oaths.  A  stop  was 
put,  in  .consequence,  to  the  administration  of  justice. 
Council-  and  Assembly  protested  against  Gookin's  law. 
He,  in  his  turn,  accused  them  of  disloyalty ;  and,  on  their 
representation,  he  was  presently  removed.  \ 

1717,  The  appointment  of  his  successor,  Sir  William  Keith, 
late  surveyor  general  of  the  colonial  customs,  was  speed- 
ily followed  by  the  death  of  Penn,  under  whose  will  dis- 

^putes  arose  as  to  the  sovereignly  of  the  province,  which 
•furnished  matter  for  a  nine  years'  law-suit.     But  all 
the  claimants  concurred  in  confirming  Keith  in  office. 
Naturally  of  an  easy  and  affable  temper,  and  anxious 
to  secure  an  ample  salary,  he  accommodated  himself  in 
.     all  things  to  the  wishes  and  prejudices  of  the  Assem- 
t>Iy,  an4  they,  hv  their  turn,  yielded  more  than  ever  be- 
fore,   -They  even  consented  to  the  enrollment  of  a  vol- 
unteer militia,  and,  at  Keith's  suggestion,  adopted,  for 

1718.  the  most  part,  the  English  criminal  law  as  a  substitute 
for  the  milder  system  of  their  own  statutes.     The  judi- 
ciary, long  the  subject  of  controversy,  was  now  at. length 

1722.  permanently  arranged  by  conferring  on  a  Supreme  Court 
of  three  judges  appellate  common  law  jurisdiction  over 


; 

I 

PENNSYLVANIA.  321 

>       ,*  ,»'*    .^*/ 

all  the  inferior  tribunals  of  the  colony.     Keith,  by  vir-  CHAPTER 

XXIII. 

tue  of  his  commission  as  governor,  was  allowed  to  hold  _ 
a  Chancery  Court  ;  but  this  was  denied  to  his  success- 
ors, and  Pennsylvania,  like  Massachusetts,  was  restrict- 
ed, in  consequence,  to  common  law  remedies. 

Keith  confirmed  his  popularity,  after  Burnet's  exam- 
ple in  New  Jersey,  by  consenting  to  an  experiment  of 
the  paper'  money  loan  system  by  an  issue  of  £15,000, 
to  be  lent  out  on  plate  or  real  estate  at  five  per  cent., 
one  eighth  of  the  principal  repayable  annually.  Loan 
offices  were  established  in  each  county.  The  smallest 
loan  was  to  be  £10  10;?.,  the  largest  £100,  unless  bills 
lay  in  the  offices  six  months  without  borrowers,  in  which 
ease  loans  might  be  made  of  £200.  The  next  year  an  1723. 
additional  £30,000  was  issued  on  the  same  plan. 

Keith's  devotion  to  the  wishes  of  the  Assembly  met 
with  some  opposition  in  the  council.  Supposing  that 
the  pending  controversy  about  the  proprietorship  would 
make  it  difficult  to  recall  him,  notwithstanding  his  in- 
structions, which  he  had  given  bonds  to  obey,  he  treated 
the  counselors  with  very  little  respect.  He  even  adopted 
the  old  doctrine  of  the  Assembly,  denying  the  council's 
right  to  participate  in  the  enactment  of  laws.  Remov- 
ed on  some  very  shallow  pretenses  from  his  offices  of  sec-  .1722. 
retary  and  counselor,  Logan  proceeded  to  England,  and 
procureo!  there  from  the  widow  Penn,  executrix  under 
her  husband's  will,  and  front-  the  trustees  whp  held  a 
mortgage  on  the  province  for  the  benefit  of  Penn's  cred- 
itors, sharp  letters  of  reprehension  to  the  governor. 

Relying  on  the  non-concurrence  of  the  other  claimants^  1724. 
Keith  still  persisted  in  his  former  course.      The  Assem- 
bly remonstrated  in  his  behalf;  but  the'  controversy  wa^j  1725. 
cut  short,  much  to  Keith's  mortification,  by  his  unex- 


JftTr* 


pected  removal  —  an  act  in  which  all  the  parties  inter- 
II.—  X 


322  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 


CHAPTER  ested  joined,  a  compromise  of  the  family  dispute  having 
'; _at  length  been  effected.     Under  the  administration  of 

1726.  Patrick  Gordon,  sent  out  to  supersede  him,  Keith  got  him- 
self elected  to  the  Assembly,  and  headed  the  opposition 
there.  But  his  influence  speedily  declined.  As  leader 
of  the  opposition  he  enjoyed  no  salary,  and  he  presently 
returned  to  England,  where  he  endeavored  to  recommend 
himself  to  notice  by  ultra  .advocacy  of  the  rights  and  au- 
thority of  the  mother  country  over  the  colonies.  He 
suggested  the  idea  of  taxing  the  colonies,  for  the  benefit 
of.,the  mother  country,  to  which  Sir  -Robert  Walpole  is 
said  to  have  replied,  "I  will  leave  that  for  some  man 
bolder  than  I  am,  and  less  the  friend  of  British  com. 
meree." 

At  the  accession  of  the  house  of  Hanover,  a  quarter 
of  a  century  had  elapsed  since  the  aged  proprietor  of  Ma- 
ryland had  been  deprive*!  of  the  administration ,  of  the 
province^  for  the  sole  reason  that  he  was  a  Catholic.  His 
more  pliable  son,  Benedict  Leonard,  who  had  conformed 
to  the  English  Church,  had  been- rewarded  by  a  pen- 
sion ;  and  when  he  succeeded  to  the  title  on  his  father's 

1715,  death,  •"  to  encourage  the  education  of  the  numerous  is- 
sue^  of  so  noble  a  family  in  the  Protestant  religion,"  in 
spite  of  the,  objections  of  the  Board  of  Trade  to  proprie- 
tary governments,  the  administration  of  the  colony  was 
unconditionally  restored.  The  new  proprietary  dying 
within  the  year,  the  province  descended  to  his  infant 
son  Charles,. fifth  Lord  Baltimore.  The  administration 
was  still  continued  in  the  hands  of  John  Hart,  the  last 
royal  governor,  who  had  recommended  himself  by  yield- 
ing up,  for  the  benefit  of  the  proprietary  family,  some 
of  the  emoluments  of  his  office. 

By  the  Constitution  of  Maryland  as  now  re-establish- 
ed, the  proprietary  possessed  all  the  functions  of  an  hered- 


•.%'/    •  ^•^%*  _^'%  *.-\       •  .  i 

STATUTES  OF  MARYLAND.          328 

itary  king,  to  be  exercised  in  his  own  person,  or  by  a  ,gov-  CHAPTER 

ernor  who  acted  as  viceroy.     Twelve  counselors,  appoint- 

ed  by  the  proprietary,  constituted  at  once  the  upper  house  1715. 
of  legislation  and  the  supreme  legal  tribunal.      The  As- 
sembly consisted  of  four  delegates  from  each  county,  with 
two  for  Annapolis,  triennially  elected  by  the  freeholders, 
and  such  others  not  freeholders  as  possessed  personal  prop- 
erty to  the  value  of  £40,  $133.      The  election  was  viva 
voce,  as.  in  Virginia,  and  those  neglecting  to  vote  .were 
liable,  as  in  that  colony,  to  a  fine.     By  a  revisal  pf  the 
Maryland,  code,  made  just  previous  to  the  retransfer  of  the 
province,  "  all  negroes  and  other  slaves  already  imported- 
or  hereafter  to  be  imported,  and  all  children  now  born 
or  hereafter  to  be  born  of  such  negroes  and  slaves,-  shall 
be  slaves  during  their  natural  lives" — an  act  construed 
as  sanctioning  in  Maryland,  though  without  any  express 
provision  to  that  effect,  the  Virginia  rule  of  determining 
the  condition  of  the  child  by  that  of  the  mother.      It  was 
expressly  provided  that  baptism  should  not  confer  free^ 
dom.      The  provisions,  in  a  long  act  on  the  subject  of 
slaves  and  servants,  bear  a  very  strong  resemblance  to 
those  of  the  Virginia  code ;  but  there  were  some  pecul- 
iarities.     "  Any  person  whatsoever"  traveling  out  of  the 
county  of  his  residence  without  a  pass  under  the  seal  of 
the  county,  might  bef  apprehended  and  carried  before  a 
magistrate,  and  if  not  sufficiently  known,  or  unable  to 
give  a  good  account  of  himself,  might,  at  the  magistrate's 
discretion,  be  committed  to  jail  for  six  months,  or  until  the 
procurement  of  "  a  certificate  or  other  justification  that  he 
or  she  is  not  a  servant."    Notwithstanding  this  certificate, 
no  discharge  was  to  be  had  till  the  jailer  was  paid  ten 
pounds  of  tobacoo,  or  one  day's  service  for  each  day  of  im- 
prisonment, and  the  person  making  the  arrest,  as  a  reward  , 
for  his  trouble,  two  hundred  pounds  of  tobacco,  or  twenty 


324  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  days'  service  !     What  is  much  more  remarkable  than  the 

"Y"VTTT  * 

passage  of  this  statute,  it  remains  unrepealed  to  this  day, 

171'5.:  not  only  in  Maryland,  but  in  the  District  of  Columbia, 
being,  in  fact,  the  very  law  under  which  the  arrest  of  sus- 
pected runaways  in  that  district  continues  to  be  made ! 
An  act  of  this,  same  session  against  blasphemy;  pro- 
fane swearing,  and  drunkenness, .  much  in  the  terms 
.of  the  first  section  of  the  vaunted  toleration  act  of  Mary- 
'  land,  provides  "  that  any  person  within  this  province 
who  shall  blaspheme  God,  that  'is  to  say,  curse  him,  or 
deny  our  Savior  Jesus  Christ  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  or 
'shall .deny  the  Holy  Trinity,. the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost,  or  the  Grodhead  of  any  of  the  persons,  or  the  unity 
of  the  Godhead,  or  shall  utter  any  profane  words  concern- 
ing the  Holy  Trinity,  or  any  pf  the  persons  thereof,"  for 
the  first  offense  shall  have  his  tongue  bored  through  and 

'  v  '.  be  fined  £20,  or,  in  default  of  payment,  be  imprisoned  six 
months ;  for  the  second  offense,  shall  b,e  "  stigmatized" 
by  branding  in  the  forehead  with  the  letter  B.,  and  be  fined 
i40,  or,  in  default  of  payment,  be  imprisoned  twelve 
months;  and  for  the  third  offense,  shall  suffer  death  with- 
out benefit  of  clergy !"  Re-enacted,  with  some  slight  mod- 
ifications of  phraseology,  but  rio  change  of  punishment, 
this  statute,  continues  to  this  day  the  law  of  the  land,  not 
in  Maryland  only,  but  in  the  District  of  Columbia  also, 
.except  that  in  the  latter,  by  the  Penitentiary  Act  so  called, 
the  punishment  of  death  is  commuted  into  confinement 
in.  the  penitentiary,  not  less  than  ten  nor  more  than  twen- 
ty years.  - 

Hart  .described  the  inhabitants  of  Maryland  as  "a 
well-natured,  most  hospitable  people,  for  .the  most  part 
zealously  affected  to  the  present  government  and  Prot- 
estant interest."  The  annual  produce  of  tobacco  amount- 
ed now  to  thirty  thousand  hogsheads  of  five  hundred 


MARYLAND.  325 

pounds  each.      With  th6  Azores  and  the  West  Indies  CHAPTER 

•V  YTTT 

there  was  a  feeble  traffic  in  timber,  Indian  corn,"  and  _ L. 

salted  provisions.      The  Catholics  were  still  deprived  of  1715. 
the  right  of  suffrage,  but  most  of  the  persecuting  laws 
enacted   against   them  were  presently  repealed.  <  Hart 
was  succeeded  as  governor  by  Charles  Calvert,  a  kins-  1720. 
man  of  the  proprietary. 

The  school  system  formerly  devised,  and  for  the  ben- 
efit of  which  certain  import  and  export  duties  -had  been 
imposed,  was  now  carried  into  effect.  Boards  of  visitors 
were  created,  seven  for  each  county,  with  power  to  per-  1723. 
petuate  themselves  by  filling  vacancies,  and  with  au- 
thority to  purchase  in  each  county  one  hundred  acres  as 
the  site  of  a  boarding  school,  and  to  employ  "  good 
school-masters,  members  of  the  Church  of  England,  and 
of  pious  and  exemplary  lives  and  conversation,  and  ca- 
pable of  teaching  well  the  grammar,  good  writing,  and 
the  mathematics,  if  such  can  conveniently  be  got,"  on  a 
salary  of  £20  per  annum,  and  the  use  of  the  plantation. 
By  av  subsequent  act,  these  masters  were  required,  under  1728. 
penalty  of  dismissal,  ~to  teach  as  many  poor  children 
gratis  as  the  visitors  should  direct.  Though  far  inferior 
to  the  school  system  of  New  England,  this  was  a  more 
liberal  provision  than  was  elsewhere  made  in  the  col- 
onies for  public  education. 

The  importation  from  Pennsylvania  or  Delaware  of  1723. 
"  bread,  beer,  flour, -malt,  wheat,  Indian  corn,  or  other 
grain  or  meal,"  and  of  horses,  was  strictly  prohibited — 
a  policy  long  persevered  in.  Another  .act,  which  throws 
seme  light  on  the  condition  of  the  province,  after  com- 
plaining of  "the  extravagant  multitude  of  useless  horses 
that  run  in  the  woods-,"  authorizes  the  shooting  of  any- 
stoned  horses  found  loose,  and  of "  all  other  horses  that 
break  into  inclosures ;  nor  was  any  person  not  having 


326  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  land  of  his  own,  or  renting  a  plantation,  to  keep  breed- 

__ —ing  mares  in  the  woods.     An  act  very  similar  to  this 

1723.  had  been  enacted  in  Virginia  a  year  or  two  previous. 

Governor  Spotswood,  a  man  of  ability  and  good  in- 
tentions, but  with  a  strong  spice  of  the  haughtiness  cus- 
tomary with  military  officers,  had  noticed,  upon  his  first 
arrival  in  Virginia,  "  a  new  and  unaccountable  humor" 
in  several  counties  of  "  excluding  the  gentlemen  from 
being  burgesses,  and  choosing  only  persons  of  mean  fig- 
ure and  character."  He  remarked  the  influences  of  this 
1715,  same  humor  in  the  expulsion  of  two  members  from  the 
House  of  Burgesses ;"  for  having  the  generosity  to  serve 
without  pay,"  which  the  House  termed  "  bribery." 

Tfye  standing  revenue  derived  from  .the  export  duty  on 
tobacco  amounted  now  to  £4000,  and,  with  the  aid  of 
d£300  from  the  quit-rents,  sufficed  for  the  payment  of  the 
civil  list.  Spotswood,  however,  had  various  projects  on 
foot  which  required  additional  grahts.  Besides  obtaining 
Indian  children,  some  from  very  distant  tribes,  to  be  in- 
structed in  the  college  at  Williamsburg,  as  an  Additional 
means  of  counteracting  the  influence  of  the  French,  he  set 
up  an  Indian  school  near  the  frontiers.  He  also  station-* 
ed  bands  of  tributary,  Indians  to  watch  the  motions  of  the 
late  hostile  Tuscaroras.  The  Assembly  had  resolved  to 
vote  no  taxes,  nor  to  raise  any  money  except  by  imposts 
on  British  goods,  and  a  discriminating  tonnage  duty  in 
favor  of  Virginia  vessels — a  favorite  policy  at  that  time 
in  all  the  cojoriies,  but  to  which  Spotswood's  instructions 
would  not  allow  him  to  consent.  After  five  weeks  of 
fruitless  altercations,  he  dissolved  the  Assembly  with  un- 
disguised marks  of  Contempt.  The  Board  of  Trade  com- 
mended bis  general  conduct,  but  they  disapproved  of  his 
speech  to  the  burgesses,  who,  though  "  mean,  ignorant 
people,"  unreasonable  and  uncompliant,  yet  "  ought  not 


VIRGINIA.  3^7 

to  have  been  irritated  by  sharp  expressions,  which  may  CHAPTER 
not  only  incense  them,  but  even  their  electors."  •  _ 

The  attention  of  the  Board  of  Trade  having  been  call-  1717. 
ed  to  the  old  laws  of  Virginia  to  prevent  the  recovery  of 
foreign  debts,  to  prohibit  the  assembly  of  Quakers,  and  to 
forbid  the  holding  of  provincial  offices  by  any  who  had  not 
been  three  years  resident  in  the  colony,  they  were  now 
repealed  by  proclamation  after  a  nominal  validity  of  more- 
than  half  a  century..  Nor- would  the  board  consent  to 
a  new  project  of  Spotswood  for  re-establishing  a  monop- 
oly of  the  Indian  traffic,  from  which  he  hoped  to  derive* 
the  funds  which  the  Asse/nbly  refused.  I  . 

Ta  Spotswood's  quarrel  with  the  "  mean  people"  of 
the  Assembly,  he  presently  added  a  still  more  dangerous 
one  with  the  "gentlemen"  of  the  council.  Eight  of  the 
twelve  members  of  that  board,  intimately  connected,  by 
family  ties,  and  headed  by  that  veteran  politician,  Com- 
missary Blair,  attempted  to  procure  his  removal,. as  they 
had  done  that  of  his  predecessors  Andros  and  Nicholson. 
They  carried  the  Assembly  with  them,  and  a  session  en-  1718. 
sued  in  which  every  measure  proposed  by  Spotswood 
was  violently  opposed.  The  post-office  system,,  under 
the  late  act  of  Parliament,  had  recently  been  extended 
into  Virginia.  Alleging  "  that  Parliament  could  not 
lay  any  tax  on  them  without  the  consenifc  of  the  General 
Assembly,"  they  exempted,  merchants'  accounts  from 
postage — an  interference;  met  the  next  year  by  a  new 
act  of  Parliament.  They  framed  charges  against  the 
governor,  and  sent  an  agent  to  England  to  support  them. 
But  the  most  substantial  grievance  of  all,  "the  inconven- 
ience of  being  governed  by  a  lieutenant,  while  .the  gov- 
ernor-irt-chief  resided  in  England,"  was  dropped  out  of 
the  representation,  lest  it  might  offend  the  Earl  of  Ork- 
ney, and  provoke  him  to  continue  Spotswood  in  office. 


328  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 


CHAPTER     *  No  sooner  was  the  Assembly  prorogued,  than  addresses 
'poured  in  from  the  convention  of  the  clergy,  from  the 

1721.  college,  from  almost  every  county,  expressing  "abhor- 
rence" of  the  Assembly's  proceedings,  and  happiness  un- 
der Spots  wood's  intelligent  and  able  administration.    The 
Board  of  Trade  sustained  him ;  but,  not  to.  stir  up  new 
animosities^1  they  denied  his  request  to  remove  the  com- 
plainant counselors.  ,  The  policy,  however,  was  hence- 
forth '  adoptedvof  preventing  the  growth  of  family  cabals 
by-  appointing  no  new  counselors  in  any  way  connected 
with  the  old  ones. 

This  quarrel  having  subside^,  Spotswood  devoted  him- 
self to  his  favorite  plan  of  promoting  the  settlement  of  the 
country  toward  the  mountains,  For  two  newly-erected 
counties  he  procured  a  ten  years'  exemption  from  quit- 
rent^.'  In  conjunction  with  Keith,  the  governor  of  Penn- 

1722.  sylvania,  he  negotiated  a  treaty  with  the  Six  Nations, 
by  which,  in  consideration^  certain  presents,  they  agreed 
to  send  no  more  hunting  or  war  parties  into  the  region 

'  east  of;  the  Blue  Ridge. 

Notwithstanding  Spots  wood's  apparent  triumph,  the 
secret  machinations  of  the  counselprs  procured  his  re- 
moval, and  Hugh  Drysdale  was  sent  out  as  his  successor. 
An  act,  renewed  from  time  to  time,  had  imposed,  in  aid 
of  the  colony  levy,  a  duty  of  ^sixpence  per  gallon  on  En- 
glish spirits,  and  twenty  shillings  a  head  on  negroes  im- 
ported. To  put  a  stop  to  the  practice  "  of  levying  cus- 

1723.  tpms  on  the.  trade  of  England,"  this  act,  to  .a  renewal  of 
.    which  l>rysdale  consented,  was  repealed  by  proclama- 
tion ;,  as  was  another  act  also  imposing  a   prohibitory 
(Juty.on  the  importation  of  convicts.      The  Assembly, 

1724.  however,  soon  obtained  leave  to  reimpose  the  old  duty 
on  liquors  when  from  countries  other  than  Great  Brit- 
ain ;  and  the  Board  of  Trade,  at  the  same  time,  intima- 


VIRGINIA.  ,    329 

ted  that  they  had  no  objection  to  a  duty  on  negroes,  if  CHAPTER 

exacted,  not  from  the  English  seller,  but  from  the  colo- L_ 

nial  purchaser. 

The  importation  of  slaves  amounted  now  to  a  thou- 
sand annually.  New  and  more  stringent  provisions  were 
enacted  for  the  suppression  of  insurrections  and  the  ar- 
rest of  runaways.  By  a  further  restriction  on  emanci- 
pations, no  slave  might  be  set  free  "  except  for  merito-  .  - 
rious  services,  to  be  adjudged  of  by  the  governor  and 
council,  and  a  license  thereupon  had  and  obtained." 
Free  negroes,  mulattoes,  and  Indians,  though  freehold- 
ers, were  deprived  of  the  right  of  voting. 

Commended  by  the  Assembly  as  "just  and  disinter-  1726. 
ested,"  Drysdale  was  able  to  boast  of  "  general  harmony 
and  contentment."     When  he  died,  after  a  four  years'  1727. 
administration,  the  government  passed  to  William  Gouch, 
like  so  many  of  his  predecessors  a  military  officer,  but  a 
man  of  excellent  temper  and  conciliatory  address1. 

For  the  ten  years  from  1720  to  1730,  the  value 'of'* 
goods  exported  from  England  to  the  North  American  , 

colonies  was, 

To  New  England. -.....£1,747,057  $7,756,935 

To  New  York..., 657,998  2,921,513 

To  Pennsylvania ..T. 321,958  1,429,500 

To  Maryland  and  Virginia. .' 1,591,665  7,046,994 

To€arolina 394,314  .     1,751,198 


Total., ?..__. £4,712,992     $20,906,14^ 

An  annual  average  of  £471,299,  $1,992>569.    • . 


330  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 

,        DESIGNS  AND  PROGRESS  OF  THE  FRENCH.    FIRST  TWELVE 
YEARS  OF  GEORGE  II.    SETTLEMENT  OF  GEORGIA. 

CIxxiv!R   A'  HOUGH  the  progress  of  New  France,  as  compared 

with  that  of  the  British  colonies,  was  but  slow  and  incon- 

1728  siderable,  the  French  still  entertained  the  grand  project  of 
appropriating  the  whole  of  that  vast  western  valley  from 
the  great  lakes  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  Iroquois  were 
no  longer  hostile ;  and,  if  the  missionary  spirit  was  dy- 
ing out,  it  had  been  succeeded  by  a  mercantile  spirit 
hardly  less  energetic  and  determined,,  'Ehe  French  fur 
traders  ranged  the  .whole  West;  the  Foxes,  the  only 
hostile  tribe  on  the  upper  lakes,  had  been  chastised  and 
'driven  from  Green  JBay.  By  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  the 
traffic,  with  the  western  Indians  was  equally  open  to  the 
English  traders  ;  but  it  still  remained,  for  the  most  part, 
in  the  hands  of  the  French,  constituting,  indeed,  almost 
the  sole  resource  of  Canada.  .The  lands  along  the  banks 
of  the  St.  Lawrence  had  been  granted  in  seigniories, 
much  like  the  patroonships  of  New  Netherland.  The 
tenants  who  cultivate^  them,  known  as  habitant,  pro- 
duced little  mote  than  was  necessary  for  the  local  con- 
sumption. They  were  often,  however,  better  off  than  the 
seigneurs,  or  feudal  lords,  whose  rents  and  feudal  rights 
amounted  to  little.  They  looked  chiefly  to  public  offices'or 
commissions  in  the  army  and  navy  as  a  means  of  support, 
and  to  them,  therefore,  peace  was  always  distasteful. 


PROGRESa-OF  THE  FRE-NCH,  3,31 

By  an  edict  of  Louis  XIV.,  the  nobles  of  Canada  had  been  CHAPTER 

xxiv« 
authorized  to  engage  in  commerce  without  any  prejudice 

to  their  nobility.  The  fur  trade,  however,  was  principally  1728. 
in  the  hands  of  the  bourgeoisie  of  Quebec  and  Montreal. 
The  attempts  to  establish  fisheries  on  the  shores  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  had  failed.  Of  the  vessels  that  took  car- 
goes to  New  France,  some  carried  coal  from  Cape  Bre- 
ton to  Martinique,  to  be  used  in  boiling  sugar -p  others 
bought  fish  in  Newfoundland  ;  but  many  returned  in  bal- 
last. Notwithstanding  objections  in  France,  leave  had 
been  granted  to  establish  linen  manufactures  in  Canada, 
and  coarse  linens  were  now  produced  sufficient  for  the 
local  demand. 

The  administration  of  Canadian  affairs  was  vested  in 
the  governor  general,  the  intendant,  and  a  supreme  coun- 
cil. The  bishop  named  all  the  curates.  The  custom 
of  Paris,  the  law  of  New  France,  under  the  conservative 
hands  of  the  English,  has  preserved,  like  the  Roman- 
Dutch  code  in  British  Guiana,  authority  in  America 
long  after  having  lost  it  in  Europe.  The  population  of 
Canada  numbered  at  this  time  about  thirty  thousand. 
Quebec  was  a  city  of  five  thousand  inhabitants.  Many 
of  the  principal  officers  of  the  government  were  estab- 
lished there,  and  it  could  boast,  in  consequence,  a  more 
agreeable  society  than  any  other  American  town.  , 

The  "  Creoles  of  Canada,"  natives,  that  is,  of  Europe- 
an descent,  are  described  by  Charlevoix  as  "  well  made, 
large,  strong,  robust,  vigorous,  enterprising,  brave, -and 
indefatigable,  .but  unpolished,  presumptuous,  self-reliant, 
esteeming  themselves  above  all  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
and  somewhat  lacking  in  filial  veneration"— a,  portrait,. 
not  of  the  Canadian  Creoles  merely,  but  of  the  whole 
Creole-American  race.  The  Canadians,  true  to  their 
French  origin,  though  inferior  .in  industry,  and  much 


332  PISTORY    OF    THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  less  wealthy,  understood  better  than  the  Anglo-Americans 

,  the  'art  of  making  themselves  happy. 

1728.  Zn  Louisiana  the  French  had  secured  the  friendship 
of  the  Choctaws,  a  numerous  confederacy  inhabiting  the 
region  from  the  Lower  Mississippi  eastward  to  the  Ala- 
bama, where  they  bordered  on  the  Creeks.  Surrounded 
by  the  Choctaws,  and  dwelling  mostly  in  a  single  village 
in  the;  close  vicinity  of  Fort  Rosalie,  were  the  Natchez, 
Hrnited  in  numbers  and  extent  of  territory,  but  remarkable 
for  a  peculiar  language  and  their  singular  religious  and 
social  institutions,  which  resembled,  in  several  points, 
those  of  the  Peruvians  of  South  America.  Like  the  Pe- 
'ruvians,  they  worshiped  the  sun,  from  whom,  also,  their 
great  chief  claimed  ttf  be  descended.  In  the  great  wig- 
wam dedicated  to  their  god,  an  undying  fire  was  kept 
burning.  Besides  their  principal  chief,  "  the  Great 
Sun,"  object  of  their  highest  reverence,  there  was  a  race 
of  inferior  chiefs  or  "  suns,"  quite  distinct  from  the  com- 
mon people.  The  hierarchical  system  was  complete  ; 
but  the  small  number  of  the  Natchez  did  not  allow  of 
any  of.  those  striking  results  of  combined  labor,  extorted 
by  religious  reverence,  so  remarkable  among  the  Mexi- 
cans and  Peruvians.  The  Natchez  hardly  differed  in  ex- 
ternals from  .the  other  tribes  about  them. 

Alarmed  at  the  encroachments  of  the  French  at  Fort 
Rosalie,  by  whom  their  very  village  was  demanded  as  a 
site  for  plantations,  the  Natchez  presently  began  to  grow 
hostile — a  feeling  stimulated  by  the  Chickasaws,  who 
dwejlt  northwardly  up  the  east  bank  of  the  Mississippi, 
toward  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio,  and  whose  country  ex- 
tended eastward  to  the  lands  of  the  Cherokees.  " 
1729.   •    Thus  encouraged,  th6  Natchez  fell  unexpectedly  on 
Nov-     the  French  settlement  at  Fort  Rosalie,  massacred  the 
men  to  the  number  of  two  hundred,  and  made  the  women 


PROGRESS   OF  THE   FREN-ClH.  333 

and    children    prisoners.     The    negro   slaves  were   not  CHAPTER 

V  VTT7 

harmed,  and  they  » presently  joined  the  Indians.      The- 

settlers  in  the  vicinity  of  New  Orleans  amounted,  by  .1729. 
this  time,  to  near  six  thousand.     But  a  third  of  that 
number  were  slaves,  and  dread  of  insurrection  adored  to 
the  terrors  of  Indian  war.      While  the  people  of  New 
Orleans  mustered  their  forces  and  fortified  the  city,  Le  1730. 
Sueur,  with  a  body  of  seven  hundred  Choctaw  warriors,     Jan> 
surprised  the  Natchez  feasting  over  their  victory,  and 
liberated  a  part  of  the  prisoners.  "    Forces  which  pres-     Feb. 
ently  arrived  from  New  Orleans  completed  the. success. 
Some  of  the  discomfited  Natchez  fled  to   the  Chicka- 
saws,  others   crossed  the  Mississippi.     But  they  were 
pursued,  and  only  a  few  made  good  their  escape.      The 
great  chief  and  four  hundred  others,  prisoners  in  the  hands 
of  the  French,  were  sent  to  St.  Domingo  and  sold  '«$.*.* -.1. 
slaves. 

The  English  government,  anxious  to  confirm  their  in-  1730. 
fluence  over  the  Cherokees,  sent  Sir  Alexander  Gum- 
ming to  Carolina,  specially  authorized  to  rene^-the 
treaties  with  that  powerful  confederacy.  Gumming  held 
several  councils  in  the  Cherokee  country  ;  and  seven  of 
the  principal  chiefs  were  persuaded  to  accompany  him 
to  England  on  a  visit  to  their  "  great  father,-"  the*  king. 
These  chiefs  signed  a  treaty  with  the  Board  of  Trade, 
by  which  they  promised  the  return  of  all  runaway  slaves, 
and  were  made  to  acknowledge  themselves  the  subjects 
of -Great  Britain.  Hence,  in  the  subsequent  controversy 
with  the  French,  a  pretense  on  the  part  of  Great  Brit- 
ain, as  in  the  case  of  the  Six  Nations,  to  sovereignty 
over  all  the  Cherokee  territory. 

While  these  events  transpired  at  the  south,  the  Ca- 
nadian authorities  excited  apprehensions  by  sending  a 
party  from  Montreal. up  Lake  Champlain  to  occupy  1731. 


334'         '  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  Crown  Point,  within  a  hundred  miles  of  Albany.     The 

XXIV 

_^  Assembly  of  New  York  resolved  that  "  this  encroach- 

1731.  intent,  if  not  prevented,"  would  pfove  of  "  the  most  per- 
nicious consequence  to  this  and  other  colonies;"  and 
they  sent'  notice  to  -  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and 
Pennsylvania,  and  applied  to  England  for  aid.  Massa- 

.  chusetts  entered  warmly  into  their  feelings.  The  Board 
of  Tirade  supported  their  complaints.  But  the  judicious 
policy  of  •  Walpole  was  peace.  The  experience  of  the 
.last  two  wars,  which  had  .saddled  England,  to  so  little 
purpose,  with  a  debt  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  millions 
of  (dollars,  was  not  yet  forgotten,  and,  in  spite  of  the  re- 
monstranc.es , of  New  York  and  New  England,  the  French 
were  allowed  quietly  to  occupy  the  shores  of  a  lake 
which,  more  than  a  century  previous,  they  had  been  the 
first  to  explore. 

Only  at  this  single  point  did  the  French  yet  approach 
the  settlements  of  the  English.      There  was  a  short  and 

'  easy  communication  from  Lake  Erie  with  the  upper  wa- 
ters of  the-  Ohio  ;  but  no  attempt  was  made  by  the 
Drench  to  occupy  those  waters,  of  which,  indeed,  they 
seem  as  yet  to  have  known  but  little.  The  communi- 
cation between  Canada  and  Louisiana  was  carried  on  by 
the  distant  routes  of  Green  Bay  and  the  Wisconsin, 
Lake  Michigan  and  the  Illinois,  and  presently  •  by  the 
Maumee  and  the  Wabash,  which  latter  river  was  ^re- 
garded by  the -French  as  the  main  stream,  to  which  the 
Ohio  Was  but  a  tributary.  Low  -down  the  Wabash  the 
post' of  St.  Vincent's  was  presently,  established.  The 
Blue  Ridge  bounded  as  yet  tHe  back  settlements  of 
Pennsylvania  and  Virginia.  Unknown  mountains  and 
unthreaded  forests  separated  for  a  few  years  longer  the 
rival  claimants  of  a  continent. 

Yet  already  the  communication  between  Canada  and 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  FRENCH.         335 

Louisiana  was  exposed  to  obstructions.     English  traders  CHABTER 
from  Carolina,  penetrating  through  the  country  of  the  " 
Cherokees,  reached  the  distant  Chickasaws,  by  whom,  1731. 
as  enemies  of  the  French,  they  were  kindly  received. 
These  traders,  in  their  turn,  stimulated  the  hostility  of   . 
the  Chickasaws,  whose  canoes,  filled  with  warriors,  at- 
tacked the  French  boats  navigating  backward  and  for- 
ward from  the  Illinois  to  New  Orleans.      The  Chicka- 
saws even,  attempted,  in  conjunction  with  the  English 
traders,  to  detach  the  tribes  of  the  northwest  from  the 
French  interest. 

The  Mississippi  Company,  utterly  disappointed  in  its 
expectations  of  profit,  and  alarmed  at  the  expense  of  the 
war  with  the  Natchez,  resigned  Louisiana  to  the  crown,  1732. 
and  the  Canadian  Bienville,  who  had  shared  the  fatigues 
and  anxieties  of  the  first  settlement,  was  again,  commis- 
sioned as  royal  governor,  but  the  system  of  administra- 
tion remained  in  most  respects  as  before.  The  hostility 
of  the  Chickasaws  seeming  to  threaten,  in  the  south- 
west, an  obstacle  to  French  dominion  similar  to  that 
which  the  Iroquois  had  formerly  presented  at  the  north, 
it  was  resolved  to  attempt  the  conquest,  of  that  haugh-  1735. 
ty  nation  by  a  simultaneous  attack  from  opposite  direc- 
tions. 

Proceeding  from  New  Orleans  to  Mobile  with  a  fleet 
of  sixty  boats  and  canoes,  Bienville  ascended  the  Tom- 
bigbee  to  a  fort  or  trading  house  lately  established  two 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  up  that  river.  •  •  There  he  was 
joined  by  twelve  hundred  Choctaws.  The  combined 
force  having  paddled  up  the  Tombigbee  to  the  head  of 
navigation,  marched  from  the  landing  now  known  as 
Cotton  Gin  Port  against  a  stronghold  of  the  Chickasaws, 
situate  about  twenty  miles  west  of  it.  Aware,  however, 
of  the  approach  of  their  enemies,  and  encouraged  by 


336  HIST.ORY  OF  THE.  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  some  English  traders,  the  Chiekasa\vs  'repulsed  the  at- 

_  tack, 'and  compelled  the  French  and  their  allies  to  an.iri- 

May.25.  glorious  retreat. 

.  .  IVArtaguette,  who  simultaneously  descended  from  the 
Illinois 'with  fifty  Frenchmen  and  a  thousand  Indians, 
had  been  still  more  unlucky.  Not  hearing  any  thing  of 
the  other  expedition,'  he  too  had  ventured  a  separate  at- 
May  20.  tack  on  a  more  northerly  'fort  -of  the  Chickasaws,  in 
which  he  fell,  severely  -wounded.  His  forces  were  re- 
pulsed and  hotly  pursued.  Himself  and  several  others, 
taken  prisoners,  were  burned  at  the  stake.  In  conse- 
quence, no  doubt,  of  the  expense  of  this  war,  the  "  card 
money"  system  which  prevailed  in  Canada  was  intro- 
s  duced  £nto  Louisiana  also. 

1739.  Three  years  after,  the  whole  strength  of  New  France 
was  again  exerted  for  the  conquest  of  the  Chickasaws. 
At  a  post  established  within  their  country  at  that  bluff 
on  the  Mississippi,  now  the  site  of  the  city  of  Memphis, 
twelve  hundred  French  soldiers  were  assembled,  with 
twice  as  many  Indians  and  negroes.     But  the  ranks 
were  soon  thinned  by  sickness,  and  the  French  were 

1740.  glad  to  purchase  peace  by  withdrawing  their  forces,  leav- 
ing the  Chickasaws  still  independent  and  indomitable. 

The  process  .for  vacating  the  charter  of  Carolina  had 
been  delayed  by  the  privilege  of  peerage  enjoyed  by  sev- 
eral of  the  proprietaries.  To  bring  things  to  a  conclu- 
sion, it  was  proposed  to  buy  the  province,  and  the  bar- 
1729.  gain  for  that  purpose  was  presently  confirmed  by  act  of 
Parliament.'  ..Seven  of  the  eight  proprietaries  relinquish- 
ed to  the  Crown  all  their  interest  for  the  sum  of  £17,500, 
to  which  were  added  £5000  more  for  arrears  of  quit- 
rents,  claimed  to  the  amount  of  £9000.  Lord  Carteret, 
the  eighth  proprietor,  surrendered  his  rights  of  jurisdic- 
tion, but  chose  to  retain  his-  interest  in  the  soil,  his 


S'OUTH   CAROLINA.  '337 

share  of  which,  in  the  -territory  north  of  the  Savannah,  CHAPTER 
was  specially  set  off  to  him.  next  to  the  Virginia  line,        .  .  '; 
which  had  been  lately  run,  and  marked  as  far  westward 
as  the  Blue  Ridge. 

The  transfer  thus  .completed,  the  appointment  of  royal  1730. 
governor  for  the  southern  province  was  given  to  that     Dec 

same  Robert  Johnson  under  whose  administration  South 

t  , 

Carolina  had  formerly  been  lost  to  the  proprietaries.  He 
brought  with  him  a  .present  of  warlike  stores,  and  a  re- 
mission of  the  arrears  of  quit-rents;  also  a  plan  for  en- 
couraging settlements  by  free  gifts  of  land,  in  townships 
to  be  laid  off  on  all  the  principal  rivers.  Under  this 
scheme  Purysburg,  the  first  town  oft  the  Savannah,  was 
founded  by  a  body  of  Swiss  emigrants.  The  office-  of 
lieutenant  governor  was  bestowed  on  Thom,as  Brough- 
ton,  who,  as  speaker  of  the  Representatives,  had  attempt-* 
ed,  during  the  late  troublesome  times,  to  arrest  the  chief 
justice  in  the  presence  of  the  council.  Several  counsel- 
ors had  been  left  out,  of  those  most  strenuous  for  obey- 
ing the  royal  instructions.  The  paper  money  party  thus 
strengthened,  the  Assembly  suspended  the  redemption  1731.. 
of  the  outstanding  bills,  they  voted  a  new  issue  of  Aug> 
^£104,000  for  the  payment  of  debts  contracted- during 
the  confusion  of  the  past  four  years,  and  they  passed  an  , 
act  for  confirming  defective  and  obsolete  titles,  by  which 
the  governor,  who  had  large  claims  of  that  sort,  hoped 
personally  to  profit,  as  did  most  of  the  counselors  and 
members  of  Assembly.  \ 

The  immigration  which  began  to  flow  from  Germany, 
Ireland,  and  the  northern  colonies,  and  the  increased  im- 
portation of  slaves,  produced  quite  a  scramble  among  the 
principal  planters  for  the  possession  of  lands.  ,  But  St. 
John,  the  king's  surveyor,  made  such  representations 
respecting  the  act  for  confirming  defective  titles^  that 
IL— Y 


338      HISTORY  .OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  royal  ve.to  was  placed  upon  it.  Having  obtained  a 
copy  of  his  observations  through  their  agejrj;  in  England, 
1732.  a  pretense  was  presently  found  by  the  Assembly  for  com- 
mitting him  and  others  to  prison  on  the  charge  of  mak- 
ing illegal  surveys.  The  chief  justice  issued  a  writ  of 
habeas  qorpiis ;  but,  forgetful  of  -their  late  zeal  in  behalf 
of  that  writ  at  the  time  it  was  denied  to  Counselor 
Smith,  and  o"f  an  act  which  they  themselves  had  passed 
for  giving  to  it  the  fullest  effect  and  imposing  penalties 
on  all  who  resisted  its  execution,  the  Assembly  now  took 
the  ground  that  persons  committed  by  their  order  were 
placed  beyond  its  reach.  The  chief  justice  persisting, 
the  Assembly  took  away  his  salary,  and  voted  him  un- 
worthy of  his  office,  and  an  enemy  to  the  province.  They 
stopped  the  suits  brought  under  the  Habeas  Corpus  law 
by  a  special  act  repealing  the  penalties.  The  council 
declined  to  interfere,  and  only  after  a  long  imprison- 
ment, and  by  special  order  from  England,  was  the  un- 
fortunate surveyor  released. 

Neither  Johnson  nor  any  of  his  successors  was  able 
to  obtain  any  thing  more  than  annual  grants  of  salary, 
for  which  the  Assembly  pleaded  the  example  of  Massa- 
chusetts. The,  Assembly,  however,  showed  their  grati- 

1735.  tude  to  Johnson,  who  presently  died  in  office,  by  voting 
a  monument  to  his  memory.     Under  Lieutenant-gov- 

1736.  ernor  Broughton  an  additional  £100,000  was  issued  in 
bills  of  credit,  to  be  lent  .out  at  eight  per  cent.,  five  eighths 
of  the  interest  -to  produce  an  accumulating  fund  for  the 
redemption  of  the  bills,  two  eighths  to  be  for  the  assist- 
ance of  "  poor  Protestants  who  shall  arrive  in  the  prov- 
ince and  settle  in  the  new  .townships,"  arid  one  eighth 

1737.  for  the  expenses  of  management.     On  Brough ton's  death 
the  government  devolved  on  William  Bull,  president. of 
the  council. 


NORTH   CAROLINA  A  ROYAL   PROVINCE.         339 
When  news  arrived  in  North  Carolina  that  the;prov-  CHAPTER 

*  •  XXIV 

ince  had  been  purchased  by  the  cr6wn,.l!}verard,  the  gov-  ____^_ 
ernor,  made  immense  grants  of  land  to  .certain  favored  1729. 
individuals,  without  stipulating,  any  price  or  reserving 
any  quit-rents,  while  the  Assembly  hastened  to  issue 
d£40,000  in  new  bills  of  credit,  under  the  usual  pretense 
of  supplying  a  deficiency  in  the  circulation.  To  regu- 
late a.  people  whom  he  himself  described  "  as  indolent 
and  crafty,  impatient  of  government, 'arid  neither  to  Tje 
cajoled  nor  outwitted  by  any  ruler,"  at  a  time  "  when 
the  council  had  been  set  aside,  and  the  General  Court 
suppressed" — where  "  justice  was  not  distributed,  and 
neither  peace  nor  order  any  longer  subsisted,"  Newcas- 
tle, the  secretary  of  state,  on  whom  it  now  devolved  to 
appoint  a  governor,  made  choice  of  that  very  same  Bur-  1731. 
rington  whom  formerly  the  proprietaries  had  recalled 
with  disgrace.  Hitherto  North  Carolina  had  been  di- 
vided into  the  two  counties  of  Albeniarle  and  Bath,  each 
including  a  number  of  precincts.  The  precincts  being 
now  raised  to  the  dignity  of  counties,  the  old  names  of 
Albemarle  and  Bath  disappeared  from  the  list. 

Burrington  gave  great  satisfaction  by  announcing  a 
remission  of  arrears  of  quit-rents.  But  when  the  As- 
sembly complained  of  exorbitant  fees— 4ong  a  standing 
grievance  in  North  Carolina — he  .rejected  their  remon- 
strance with  contempt,  as  an  assumption  of  unconstitu- 
tional authority.  Justly  offended,  the  Assembly  refused 
to  vote  a  revenue  or  to  pass  any  acts.  They  sent  com- 
plaints to  England  of  Burrington's  "  violence  and  tyr- 
anny." He  received  a  reprimand  from  the  Board  of 
Trade,  and  was  presently  superseded  by  Gabriel  John-  1734. 
ston,  late  steward  of  Lord  Wilmington,  a  Scotchman  of  Nov> 
knowledge  and  prudence,  but  whose  policy  sometimes  de- 
generated into  cunning. 


340"  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER   .'  The  governor  of  North.  Carolina  had  indeed  a  diffi- 

XXIV  •  ' 

.      '     cult  part  to  play.      The  crown  officers  were  to  be  paid 

1734.  out  of  the  quit-rents.     Bui  the  formation  of  a  rent-roll 
and  legal  provision  for  the  collection  of  these  rents  being 
left  to^the  Assembly^  it  was  very  difficult  to  come  to 
any  arrangement  satisfactory  on  the  one  hand  to  the 
rent-payers,  of  Whom  the  Assembly  was;  composed,  and, 
oh  the  other,  to  the  governor  and  council,  and  the  Board 

1735.  of  Trade.     The  Assembly  having  been  prorogued  with- 
out passing  any  law,  Johnston  undertook  to  collect  the 
rents  ou  his  own  authority.     But  payment  was  resisted  ; 

173 7.x and  when  the  Assembly  was  again  convened,  the  legal- 
March>  ityv.  of  the  governor's  proceedings  was  denied,  and  his 
officers,  who  had  distrained  for  quit-rents,  were  impris- 
oned.   Thus  vigorously  met,  Johnston  presently  arranged 
1739.  with  a  new  Assembly  a  quit-rent  law,  which  he  repre- 
Febt     sehted  as  having  "  restored  peace  to  a-  turbulent  people." 
But  the  law  wa^  rejected  in  England,  as  yielding  too 
much  to  the  demands  of  the  Assembly.     The  quit-rents 
still  continued  a  Bone  of  contention,  and  the  royal  officers 
remained  unpaid. 

Under  GouchVrule  Virginia  enjoyed  a  long  period  of 
profound  political  quiet.      Shortly  after  his  accession  the 
1729.  province  obtained  a  printing  press.     Presently  a  news- 
1735.  paper  began  to  be  published  at  Williamsburg.      Settlers 
gradually  penetrated  the  Blue  Ridge  in  that  portion  of 
it^  north  of  James  River,  and  established  themselves  in 
the  yalley  beyond.     Finding  the  revenue  run  short,  the 
Assembly  availed  itself  of  the  hint  of  the  Board  of  Trade, 
1734.  and  imposed  a  duty  on  the  importation  of  negroes  of 
five  per  cent,  on-  the  value,  "  payable  by  the  buyer." 
This    duty,  afterward    considerably    increased,  and   at 
times  as  high  as  twenty  per  cent.,  continued  to  be  col- 
lected as  long  as  Virginia  remained  a  British  colony. 


MARYLAND.  34^ 

Reprpached  for  having  returned  the  bow  of  a  negro,  CHAPTER 
"  1  should  be  much  ashamed,"  Gouch  replied,  "  that  a 
negro  should  have  better  .manners  than  I."  This  anec- 
dote, almost  the  only  thing  recorded  of  Gouch?  throws 
light  on  the  policy  of  an  eighteen  years'  administration, 
the  undisturbed  calm  of  which  leaves  almost  a  blank  an 
the  history  of  Virginia. 

Under  Benedict  Leonard  Qalvert,  a  younger  brother  1727. 
of  the  lord  proprietor  of  Maryland,  five  years  governor- 
of  that  province,  acts  were  passed  designed  to  promote  1731. 
the  industry  of  the   colony,  offering  bounties  on  flax, 
hemp,  and  iron.      Departing  for  England,  Calvert  left  1732. 
the  government  to  Benjamin  Ogle,  who  was  soon  super- 
seded by  the  arrival  of  the  young  proprietary  in  person. 

Amtmg  the  bounties  lately  offered  were  premiums  on 
the  importation  of  gold  and  silver  ;.'.'  but  as  this  project 
for  curing  the  scarcity  of  money  did  not .  succeed,  the 
paper  money  loan  system  was  now  introduced.  Ninety  1733. 
thousand  pounds  were  issued  in  bills  of  credit,  £1000 
to  go  to  each  county  for  public  buildings,  £3000  toward 
a  government  house,  a  certain  sum  to  the  planters  for 
burning  refuse  tobacco,  and  the  balance  to  be  lent  to 
the  inhabitants  at  four  per  cent.,  redeemable  one  third 
in  1748,  and  two  thirds  in  1764,  the  interest  to  consti- 
tute a  sinking  fund.  Though  made  a  legal  tender  for  , 
every  thing  except  proprietary  and  clergy  dues,  thQ  de- 
preciation on  these  bills  soon  amounted  to  one  half. 

It  was  one  chief  object  of  the  proprietary  in  visiting  the 
colony  to  superintend  the  settlement  of.  the  line  between 
Maryland  on  the  one  hand,  and  Pennsylvania  and  Dela- 
ware on  the  other,  which  the  gradual  advance  of  settle- 
ments on  both  sides  now  made  desirable.  Previous 'to  his 
departure  from  England,  Lord  Baltimore  had  signed  an 
agreement  with  the  heirs  of  Penn,  fixing  as  the  southern 


342  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  boundary  of.  Delaware  a  line  commencing  at  Cape  Cor- 
nelia, or.  as  it  was  called  in  this  agreement^  Cape  Hen- 

1733.  lopen,  to  be  drawn  due  west  from  Delaware  Bay  to  the 
Chesapeake.  '  The  west  boundary  of  Delaware  was  to  be 
a  tangent  drawn  from  the  middle  point  of  this  line  to  a 
circle,  of  twelve  miles  radius  round  Newcastle.     A  due 
west  line  drawn  through  this  tangent   continued  north- 
erly to  a  parallel  of  latitude  fifteen  miles  south  of  Phila- 
delphia, Was  to  be  the  southern  boundary  of  Pennsylva- 
nia.    The  boundaries  of  these  provinces  were  finally  set- 
tled in  conformity  to  this  agreement,  but  not  till  after 
near  twenty  years  of  litigation.      On  his  arrival  in  the 
colony,  on  the  plea  of  misrepresentation  and  misapprehen- 
sion, particularly  in  relation  to  the  situation  of  Cape  Hen- 
lopen,  Lord  Baltimore  refused  to  be  bound  by  his*agree- 

1734.  ment,  and  he  presently  petitioned  the  king  to  be  con- 
firmed in  possessioi}  of  the  whole  peninsula  between  the 
Chesapeake  and  the  Delaware.      Some  collisions  having 

1736.  taken  place  oh  the  borders  undercolor  of  executing  legal 
process,  a  royal  order  commanded  the  preservation  of 
peace  till  the  controversy  could  be  decided  in  the  English 
Court  of  Chancery.  Baltimore  returning  to  England  to 
prosecute  this  suit,  the  administration  passed  again  into 
the  hands  of  Ogle. 

1730.  .  The  paper  money  of  the  first  Pennsylvania  issues  be- 
ing about  to  expire,  after  much  negotiation  with  the  pro- 
prietaries an  act  was  passed,  increasing  the  amount  to 
d£  7  5,000,  and  providing  for  its  reissue  in  such  quantities 
as  to  keep  that  sum  in  constant  circulation  for  the  next 
ten  years.  The  proprietaries  Would  consent  to  this  ar- 
rangement only  on  condition  of  an  equivalent  for  their 
loss  on  quit-rents1  by  the  depreciation  of  the  paper  ;  'and 
they  made  it  a  part  of  their  instructions  to  their  govern- 
ors to  agree  to  no  further  issues.  This  prudent  reserve, 


PENNSYLVANIA.  343 

imitated  in  Maryland,  and  enforced  fry  th&  royal  instruc-  CHAPTER 
tions  in  New  Jersey  and  New  York,  saved  the  paper  cur-        . 
rency  of  the  middle  colonies  from  that  excessive  depre-  17^0. 
ciation  by  which  New  England  and  the  Carolinas  were 
damaged  and  disgraced.     There,  was  not,  however,  a  sin- 
gle colony  in  which  the  paper  money  stood  at  par. 

Upon  the  death  of  th,e  widow  Penn,  and  of  Springett, 
son  and  heir  of  William  Penn  the  younger,  the  sover- 
eignty and  territorial  rights  of  the  province  were  reunit- 
ed, under  the  founder's  will,  in  John,  Thomas,  and  Rich- 
ard, his  sons  by  his  second  wife.  John,  the  eldest,  born 
in  Pennsylvania  during  his  father's-  last  visit,  possessed 
a  double  share.  He  presently  visited  the  province,  and  1734. 
remained  a  year  or  two,  a  much  greater  favorite  than 
his  second  brother,  Thomas,  wha  came  earlier  and  re- 
mained longer,  but  whose  reserved  manners  and  sordid 
disposition  did  not  much  recommend  him  to  the  esteem 
of  his  subjects.  Neither  of  the  sons  pressed  a  spark 
of  their  father's  genius. 

The  population  of  Pennsylvania,  by  immigration  prin- 
cipally from  Germany  and  the  north  of  Ireland,  was  in- 
creasing at  the  rate  of  five  or,  six  thousand  ja  year. 
Among  the  German  immigrants  were  some  Catholics. 
The  erection  of  a  Catholic  Church  in  Philadelphia^  and 
the  open  celebration  of  mass,  attracted  the  attention  of 
Governor  Gordon.  He  proposed  to  enforce  the  English 
persecuting  statutes,  by  which  the  celebration  of  mass 
was  prohibited.  ,  But  vthe  council  thought  the  Catho-  \ 
lies  protected  by  the  Charter  of  Liberties,  and  they  re- 
mained unmolested — the  only  Catholic  Church  allowed 
previous  to  the  Revolution  in  any  Anglo-American  col- 
ony. .  The\bulk  of  the  German  immigrants  w«re  either 
Lutherans  or  Calvinists.  There  came  also  Mennonists, 
and  presently  Moravians,  enthusiastic  German  sects, 


344  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  whose  principles,  especially.  on<  the  subject  of  war,  were 

_J L_more  or  less  allied  to  those  of  the  Quakers.  A  new 

1734.  sect,  called  Dynkers,  sprang  up  among  the  German  im- 
migrants— a.  sort  of  monastic  .order,  of  which  some  com- 
munities are  still  in  existence.  Most  of  the  Irish  im- 
migrants were  Presbyterians,  a  vigorous,  energetic  race, 
descendants  of  the  Scatch  settlers  introduced  into  the 
north  of  Ireland  by  James  I.  and  Cromwell.  Among 
the^  immigrants  from  Wales  were  a  few  Baptists.  The 
Quakers,  though  no  longer  a  majority,  still  had  entire 
political  control  of  the  province.  Next  to  them  in  in- 
fluence were  the  Episcopalians,  more  distinguished  for 
wealth  and  intelligence  than  for  numbers.  All  these 
sects  supported  their  own  religious  worship  in  their,  own 
way,  without  the  help  of  any  compulsory  laws. 

Hitherto  the  settlements  had  been  mostly  confined  to 
the  three  original  counties  on  the  Delaware,  a  narrow 
tract  in  the  southeast  corner  of  the  province.  A  fourth 
1737.  county  was  now  erected,  called  Lancaster.  Each  of 
the  original  co-unties,  had  eight  delegates  in  the  Assem- 
bly, the  city  of  Philadelphia  two,  and  the  county  of  Lan- 
caster four.  . 

The  principal  product  of  Pennsylvania  was  wheat,  in 
which  a  considerable  commerce  was  carried  on  with  Spain, 
Portugal,  and  the  West  Indies.  The  price  of  proprie- 
tary lands  was  raised  to  £15  10s.,  about  $45,  the  hund- 
rec(  acres,  subject  to  a  quit-rent  of  a  halfpenny  per  acre. 
After  the  example  of  the  founder,  the  proprietaries  took 
care  to  reserve,  out  of  every  new  tract  surveyed,  a  tenth 
part  of  the  best  lands,  under  the  name  of  manors,  as  their 
private  property. 

The  Board  of  Trade  struggled  to  keep  the  Assembly 
from  trenching  on  what  were  esteemed  the  rights  of 
British  commerce.  But  as  five  years  were  allowed  by 


BURNETT  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  345 

•the  charter  for  the  presentation  to  the  crown  of  enact-  CHAPTER 

XXIV 

mentis,  which  possessed,  in  the  mean  time,  the  force  of  .     V  ' 
laws,  and  as  laws,  though  disapproved,  might  be  again  1735. 
re-enacted  with  some  trifling  alterations,  the  Assembly 
managed,  for  the  most  part,  to  have  things  much  their 
own  way.     , 

After  the  death  of  the  aged  Gordon,  Logan,  so  long  1736. 
the  vigilant  guardian  of  proprietary  rights,  administered 
the  government  for  two  years,  as  president  of  the  coun- 
cil, till  the  arrival  of  George  Thomas,  the'  new  deputy  ,1738. 
governor. 

A  few  months  before  Burnet  took  possession  of  his  1728. 
new  government  of  Massachusetts,  Dumrner,  the  lieu-  Feb* 
tenant  governor,  had  been  coerced  into  signing,  contrary 
to  his  instructions,  an  act  for  the  issue  of  £50,000.  in 
new  bills  of  credit.  In  no  other  way  could  he  obtain 
the  small  pittance  of  salary  which  the  General  Court 
allowed  him.  This  coercive  power  had  long  been  a  sub- 
ject of  complaint  on  the  part  of  the  Board  of  Trade. 
Every  successive  governor  of  Massachusetts  had  been 
instructed  to  demand  the  establishment  of  a  permanent 
salary  for  the  office  of  £1000  sterling,  $4444,  annual- 
ly. Seeing  how  delicate  this  matter  was,  Dudley  had 
omitted  to  press  it.  It  had  formed  one  of  Shute's  grounds 
of  quarrel  with  the  House.  Escorted,  into  Boston  wi^h  July. 
a  parade  and  ceremony  that  gave  him  high  notions  of 
the  "  plenty  of  this  great  province,"  Burnet,  in  hi&  first 
speech  to  the  General  Court,  renewed  the  demand. 

The  House  protested  great  readiness  to  grant  ample 
and  honorable  support,  especially  to  a  governor  for  whom 
they  had  so  high  a  personal  respect ;  but  they  insisted 
on  their  right  to  do  it  by  annual  grant.  They  voted  at 
once,  as  a  salary  for  the  first  year,  £1700  of  their  cu'f- 
rency ;  but  Burnet  declined  to  accept  any  partial  allow- 


346  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  ance,  as  being  inconsistent  with  his  instructions  and  his 

XXI-V 

—  independence.      Such  a  temporary  grant  could  not  be 

1728.  honorable,  since  it  deprived -him  of  the  "undoubted  right 
of  an  Englishman  to  act  His  judgment."      The  matter 
"was  argued  on  both1  sides  at  great  length.      The  dele- 
gates might  have  been  willing  to  compromise  by  voting 
a  fixed  salary  for  a  term  of  years ;   Burnet  might  have 
been  willing  to  accept  a  salary  for  his  term  of  office. 
But  neither  party  inclined  to  take,  the  first  step  in  yield- 
ing ;  arid,  after  a  tedious  session,  the  court  was  pro- 
rogued. 

\Flie  representatives  sent  to  every  town  a  statement 
of  the  points  in  dispute.  The  inhabitants  of  Boston,  as- 
se'mbled  in  town  meeting,  warmly  supported  the  repre- 
sentatives. To  punish  this  "unnecessary  forwardness" 

1729.  in  the  people  of  the  capital,  Burnet  convened  the  next 
April.    COUFt  at  galem.     But  the  delegates  insisted  that  Boston 

was  the  only  constitutional  place  of  meeting ;  and  a  two 
months'  session  was  Consumed  in  disputes. 

The  court,  in  their  turn,  attacked  the  governor.  They 
addressed  a  petition  to  the  king,  principally,  indeed, 
against  his  instructions,  but  partly,  also,  against  his  con- 
duct—the exaction,  especially,  of  certain  fees,  by  which 
the  governor  Attempted  to  make  up  the  want  of  a  salary. 
Francis  Wilks,  a  New  England  merchant  resident  in 
London,  was  appointed  colonial  agent,  and  Belcher  was 
sent  from  Boston  to  aid  him.  Belcher,  for  several  years 
past,  had  been  a  member  of  the  council,  and  always 
hitherto  a  warm  prerogative  man.  But  on.  this  occasion 
he  took  the  popular  side,  having  presided  at  the  Boston 
meeting  called  to  approve  the  conduct  of  the  represent- 
atives. As  no  vote  of  money  could  be  carried  through 
the  cotinoil  to  pay  a  salary  to  these  agents,  the  sum 
needed  was  raised  by  subscription. 


BURNE,T  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  347 

A  hearing  before  the  Privy  Council  resulted  in  Bur-  CHAPTER 
net's  favor,  with  a  recommendation   that  "the   whole, 
matter  be  laid  before  Parliament."     But  this  threat,  of  1729. 
which  the  sincerity  was  doubted,  failed  of  its  in  tended     May 
effect.     Already  that  storm  of  opposition,  which  finally 
swept  Walpole  from  the  helm,  was  rising  in -England. 
Should  the  conduct  of  the  colony  be  brought  before  Par- 
liament, the  agents  were  promised  support  by  the  op- 
ponents of  the  ministry. 

In  Massachusetts,  meanwhile,  new  disputes  had  arisen. 
Burnet  had  reclaimed  the  appointment  of  attorney  gen- 
eral, which,  twenty  years  before,  Lieutenant-governor 
Tailer  had  yielded  to  the  court.  The  House  retorted 
by  requesting  the  grand  juries  to  pay  no  attention  to  in- 
dictments presented  by  a  pretended  officer,  whose  ap- 
pointment lacked  their  necessary  concurrence.  Burnet 
also  refused  his  sanction  to  a  practicej  commenced  in 
Shute's  time,  of  inserting  into  money  bills  a  provision 
that  no  payments  should  be  made  except  by  express 
vote  of  the  General  Court,  whereas  the  charter  author- 
ized payments  on  the  governor's  warrant.  Finding  the 
representatives  as  firm  at  Salem  as  at  Boston,  the  gov- 
ernor adjourned  them  to  Cambridge.  They  complained  Aug.- 
of  these  repeated  attempts  at  coercion,  and  transmitted  to 
their  agents  new  charges  against  the  governor. 

.  In  the  height  of  the  contest,  Burnet  suddenly  died  of  Sept, 
a  fever.  When  this  news,  reached  England,  Belcher 
became  an  applicant  for  the  vacant  office.  Shute,  whose 
appointment  he  had  formerly  obtained,  aided  his  appli- 
cation. The  ministry  hoped,  by  his  assistance,  to  com- 
promise a  quarrel  of  which  they  were  tired  ;  and,  not- 
withstanding ^the  part  he  had  recently  taken  against 
Burnet,  not  a  little  to  the  surprise  of  the  province,  Belch- 
er was  commissioned  as  his  successor. 


348  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITEJ)    STATES. 

CHAPTER-  Besides  his  Massachusetts  agency,  Belcher  was  era- 
,  ployed  by  the  ^colony  of -Connecticut  to  assist  their  agent, 
1729.  Dummer,  who  died  about  this  iime,  in  a  matter  of  no 
slight  importance  to  that  colony,  and,  indeed,  to  several 
others.  John  Winthrop,  great-grandson  of  the  first  gov- 
ernor of  Massachusetts,  by  an  appeal  from  the  Superior 
Court. of  Connecticut  to  the  king  in  council,  had  brought 
into  question  the  law  of  that  colony,  admitting  daughters 
to  share  with,  sons  as  joint  heirs,  and  distributing  the 
lands. among  all  the  children  equally,  except  a  double 
share  to  the  eldest  son.  This  law  of  Connecticut,  which 
Was, law  also  in  the  rest  of  New  England,  as  well  as  in 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  and  Delaware,  was  set  aside 
on  the  appeal,  as  contrary  to  the  English  law  of  inherit- 
ance-r- a  decision  not  only  in  conflict  with  the  sentiment 
of  those  colonies,  but  threatening  to  introduce  a  great 
uncertainty  into  landed  titles  by.  overthrowing  the  set- 
tlement of  all  landed  estates.  It  was  considered,  there- 
fore, a  great  point  gained  when  the  agents  obtained  a 
confirmation  of  the  Connecticut  law. 

While  Belcher  was  employed  on  this  mission,  Dr. 
Greorge  Berkeley,  ft  distinguished  advocate  of  the  meta- 
physical doctrine  of  the  non-existence  of  matter,  arrived 
at  Newport,  and  was  admitted  a  freeman  of  Rhode 
Island.  This  ingenious  philanthropist,  whom  Swift  de- 
scribes '"  as  an  absolute  philosopher  with  regard  to  money, 
titles,  and  power,"  besides  a  handsome  property,  the  be- 
quest of  Swift's  Vanessa,  had  obtained,  through  tl)e  pat- 
ronage of  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  the  Irish  sinecure  dean- 
ery _of  Derry,  worth  £1100  a  year.  Having  conceived 
the  project  of  founding  a  college  in  the  Bermudas  for  the 
instruction  of  Indians  and  the  education  of  missionaries, 
he  ^proposed  ^o  resign  his  preferment,  and  to  become 
rector  -of  this,  college  on  a  salary  of  £1.00  per  annum. 


BERtfE.LEY  IN  RHODE  ISLAND.  349 

He  even  persuaded  three  junior  fellows  of  Trinity  Col-  CHAPTER 

XXIV. 

lege  to  agree  to  accept  fellowships  in  it  at  £40  a  year , — 

He  had  interested  George  L  in  his  plan,' and,  through 
the  king's  commands  to  Walpole,  a  vote  of  the  House 
of  Commons  was  .obtained,  authorizing  the  appropriation 
to  this  purpose  of  a  portion  of  the  money  to  be  derived 
from  the  sale  of  the  lands  of  that  part  of  St.  Kitt's  ceded 
to  England  by  the  treaty  of  Utrecht.     Being  lately  mar- 
ried, Berkeley  proceeded  to  Newport,  bought  a  farm,  and  1729. 
built  a  house,  intending  to  invest  the  funds  of  his  col- 
lege, when  received,  in  American  lands,, and  to  make  the 
r  necessary  arrangements  for  a  supply  of  pupils  and  pro- 
visions.    Walpole  regarded  the  whole  scheme  as  vision- 
ary.     George 'I.  being  no  longer  alive,  no  steps  were 
taken  toward  furnishing  the  funds,  and,  after  a  residence 
at  Newport  of  two  years  and  a  half,  Berkeley  returned, 
disappointed,  to  England.     Shortly  after  his  return  he 
was  made  Bishop  of  Cloyne.'    His  farm  at  Newport  he  , 
gave  to  Yale  College,  and  also  a  handsome  collection  of 
books.      His  famous  stanzas  «  On  the  Prospect  of  Plant- 
ing Arts  and  Learning  in  America"  will  outlive  all  his 
other  productions. 

The  population  of  Rhode  Island  now  amounted  to 
eighteen  thousand,  of  whom  about  one  thousand  were 
Indians,  and  upward  of  sixteen  hundred  rieigroeg.  .  New- 
port, from  a  little  hamlet  of  religious  enthusiasts,  had 
grown  up  into  a  gay  and  thriving  commercial  town  of 
five  thousand  inhabitants.  "  Herer"  wrote  Berkeley, 
"  are  four  sorts  of  Anabaptists,  besides  Presbyterians, 
Quakers,  Independents,  and  many  of  no  profession  at 
all,"  There  was  also  an  Episcopal  church,  In  whidh 
Berkeley  often  preached,  and  to  which  he  gave  an  organ, 
one  •  of  the  first  set  up  in  America.  William  Wanton 
succeeded  Jenckes  as  governor  of  Rhode  Island  in  1732. 


HISTORY  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

( 

CHAPTER  John  Wanton,  chosen  in  1734,  held  office  for  the  next 
_       seven  years.     James  Franklin,  the  founder  of  the  unfor- 
1732.  tunate  Boston  Courarit,  established  a  newspaper  at  New- 
port, the  first  in  Rhode  Island. 

Among  the  companions  whom  Berkeley  brought  with 
him  to  America  was  John  Smibert,  a  Scotch  artist,  who 
married  and  settled  at  Boston  in  his  profession  of  a  por- 
trait painter,  an  art  which  he  first  introduced  into  Amer- 
ica. Smibert  was  by  no  means  destitute  of  merit,  as 
may  be  seen  by  his  head  of  Bentivoglio  at  Cambridge, 
and  his  pleasing  picture  of  Berkeley  and  his  family,  still 
preserved  at  .Yale  College,  in  which  the  artist  himself 
appears  as  one  of  the  figures. 

The  instructions  .given  to  Belcher  as  governor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts were  so  far  modified  that  he  was  authorized 
to  accept  a  standing  salary  of  £1000,  to  be  paid 'first 
1730.  out  of  the  annual  grants.     When  he  met  the  General 
SePt    Court,  partly  by  flattery  and  partly  by  threats — by  rep- 
resenting his  own  services  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  ^x- 
pense  and  danger  of  the  dbntest  on  the  other,  he  did  his 
best  to  bring  about  a  settlement.      But,  after  repeated 
conferences  between  the  council  and  the  House,  no  re- 
sult could  be  arrived  at,  and  the  court  was  dissolved. 

To  secure  a  majority  in  the  next  hoUse,  the  governor 
courted  the  popular  leaders  by  appointments  to  vacant 
offices,  and  even  by  making  vacancies  for  them ;  but  in 
the  persons  thus  removed  from  office  he  made  new  and 
bitter  eriemies,  while  the  popular  leaders  who  accepted  his 
patronage  Icyst  thereby  a  portion  of  their  influence.  The 
English  press  had  told  the  Bostonians  "  how  much  their 
tioble  stand  against  the  unconstitutional  demands  of  Bur- 
net  had  endeared  them  to  all  lovers  and  assertors  of  lib- 
erty in  Britain."  These  encouragements,  reprinted  at 
Boston,  strengthened  the  opposition.  The  new  court 


BELCHER  GOVERNOR  OF  MASSACHUSETTS.    35^ 

proved  as  unmanageable  as  the  last ;  and,  seeing  no  other  CHAPTER 
chance  for  a  salary,  the  secretary  of  state,  at  Belcher's  ___ 
earnest  request,  presently  allowed  him  to  accept  a  grant  1731. 
for  a  year.  March- 

The  extension  of  settlements  into  the  interior  led  now 
to  the  erection  of  two  new  counties,  Worcester  and  Berk- 
shire ;  the  first  including  the  central  hilly  region  between 
Boston  and  Connecticut  River,  the  other  the  mountain- 
ous district  west  of  the  Connecticut  Valley,  extending  as 
far  as  the  boundary  of  New  York — a  boundary,  how- 
ever, as  yet  unsettled. 

The  salary  dispute  was  hardly  disposed  of  when  an- 
other still  more  violent  broke  out.  The  appetite  for  pa- 
per money  was  strong  as  ever  in  Massachusetts.  Belch- 
er, however,  adhered  firmly  to  his  instructions,  and  would 
consent  to  no  new  issues.  He  was  also  instructed  not 
to  consent  to  the  insertion  into  money  bills  of  that  clause 
already  objected  to  by  Burnet,  requiring,  even  in  case 
of  appropriations  already  made,  an  express  vote  of  the 
General  Court  for  payments  from  the  treasury.  Hav- 
ing vainly  petitioned  the  king  to'  withdraw  these  in-  May. 
structions,  the  General  Court  adopted  the  extreme  meas- 
ure of  stopping  the  supplies,  and  for  near  two  years  all 
the  public  officers,  and  the  soldiers  in  the  frontier  forts, 
remained  unpaid. 

The  British  merchants,  meanwhile,  renewed  their 
complaints  of  colonial  obstacles  to  the  recovery  of  foreign 
debts ;  of  the  frauds  perpetrated  by  excessive  paper  is- 
sues ;  of  colonial  duties  imposed  on  British  goods  j  of 
discriminations  in  favor  of  colonial  ships ;  and  of  the  ex- 
tension of  manufactures  in  America.  The  Board  of 
Trade,  in  explanation  of  these  grievances,  reported  <« that,  1732. 
in  Massachusetts,  the  chief  magistrate  and  every  other 
officer  being  wholly  dependent,  .the  governors  are  tempted 


352  HISTQRY   OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  to  give  up  the  prerogative  of  the  crown  and  the  interest 
-  .  of  Britain.  Connecticut,  Rhode-  Island,  and  Maryland 
17S2.  being  under  no  obligation  to  transmit  their  laws,  or,  in- 
deed, to  give  any  account  •  of  their  proceedings,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  governments  constituted  like  these  should 
be  guilty  o£  many  irregularities.  Pennsylvania  had 
evaded  her/  charter,  having  transmitted  since  the  year 
1?15  no  acts  of  Assembly  for  the  roy£l  revision  except 
occasionally  an  act  or  two.  Even  the  royal  governors 
had  been  negligent  in  sending  in  the  bills  which  the  pro- 
vincial Legislatures  frequently  endeavored  to  enact  repug- 
nant to  the  laws  and  interests  of  Britain,  which,  however, 
had  been  always  disapproved  when  at  length  received." 

New  instructions  were  sent  to  all  the  colonial  govern- 
ors to  consent  to  no  acts  of  Assembly  which  might  in- 
juriously affect  the  trade  of  the  kingdom,  or  might  give 
colonial  traders  any  preference  over  British  merchants; 
.  and  a  particular  account  was  required  of  all  manufactures 
set  up,  traffic  carried  on,  or  laws  made,  likely  to  prove 
disadvantageous  to  the  mother  country.  «* 

The  parliamentary  prohibition  to  manufacture  in 
America  woolen  goods  fpr  exportation  from  one  colony  to 
another  did  not  extend  to  hats,  an  article  beginning  to 
be  largely  produced  in  some  of  the  northern  colonies. 
But  the  English  hatters  were  awake,  and  this  trade 
was  cut  short  not  only  by  placing  hats  under  the  same 
restrictions  with  other  woolen  goods,  but  by  forbidding 
any  colonial  hatter-  to  take  more  than  two  apprentices 
at  once. 

Another  act  of  Parliament,  "  for  the  more  speeply  re- 
covery of  debts  ill  America,"  gave  to  proof  by  depositions 
all  the  validity  of  personal  testimony,  and  subjected  lands 
and  slaves  to  execution  forx  all  demands,  those  upon  sim- 
ple contract  as  well  as  those  upon  bonds  and  specialties 


APPEAL   TO   PARLIAMENT.  353 

— a  modification  of  the' English  law  on  this  subject,  still  CHAPTER 

the  basis  throughout  the  United  States  of  the  relation  _ 

between  debtor  and  'creditor.  1732. 

N  Since  the  union,'  Scotlarid  had  enjoyed  all  the  privi- 
leges of  English  commerce,  while  Ireland  alone,  o.f  all 
the  countries  in  the  world,  had  been  expressly  excluded 
from  any  direct  import  trade  with  the  colonies.  The 
direct  transport  to  Ireland  of  "non-enumerated  articles" 
was  now  again  conceded.  The  different  relations  of  Ire- 
land and  Scotland  to  the  colonies  will  go  far  to  explain 
the  remarkable  difference  in  their  commercial  progress. 

At  this  not  very  auspicious  moment,  the  General  Dec. 
Court  of  Massachusetts  voted  a  new  petition  to  the  king 
for  the  recall  of  the  obnoxious  instructions,  with  direc- 
tions to  their  agent,  if  the  petition  should  not  be  grant- 
ed, to  present  it  to  the  Hotise  of  Commons.  Belcher 
wrate  in  alarm  to  the  Board  of  Trade,  that  "  matters 
are  hastening  to  such  a  crisis  that  government  can  not 
subsist  if  it  is  not  vigorously  maintained. '?  "  Had  they 
sat  a  few  days  longer,"  he  added,  "  the  representatives 
would  have  voted  the  council  a  useless  part  of  the  Leg- 
islature." 

The  decision  of  the  king,  after  hearing  coui^sel,  being  1733. 
adverse  to  the  petition,  the  colonial  agents  appealed  to  May< 
Parliament  "  to  become  intercessors  with  his  majesty  to 
withdraw  the  royal  orders,  as  contrary  to^  their  charter, 
and  tending  in  their  nature  to  distress,  if  not  to  ruin 
them."  This  appeal  hardly  received  that  support  on 
the  part  of  the  opposition  which  the  agents  had  been  led 
to  expect.  The  Commons  resolved^  .after  some  debate, 
that  the  complaint  was  "  frivolous  and;  groundless,  a 
high  insult  upon  his  majesty's  government,  and  tending 
to  shake  off  the  dependency  of.  the  colony."  The  Board 
of  Trade  suggested  to.  Belcher,  that  if  the  General  Court 
II.— Z 


354  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  persisted  in  refusing  supplies,  Parliament  might  think  it 
^__  necessary  to  interfere ;  and  they  desired  to  know  "  what 
1733.  duties  may  be  laid  in  New  England  with  the. least  bur- 
den to  the  .people."      Alarmed  at  these  decisive  steps, 
the  representatives  yielded  at  last,  and  voted  supplies. 

As  the  royal  instructions  had  no  force  in  Connecticut 
and  Rhode  Island,  they  could  not  prevent  a  torrent  of 
paper  money  from  that  quarter.  Connecticut,  hitherto 
very ,  cautious  in  her  issues,  now  first  adopted  the  loan 
system,  and  ,put  out  £20,000  on  that  plan.  Rhode  Isl- 
and, more  experienced  and  bolder,  issued  a  new  loan  of 
4106,000.  'The  merchants  of  Boston,  anxious  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  profits  of  the  paper  money  manufacture, 
agreed  together  to  receive  none  of  this  last  issue.  As 
an  offset  to  it,  they  formed  a  bankirjg  company  of  their 
own,  which  put  out.  £110,000  in  paper  bills,  redeema- 
ble in  silver^  a  tenth  part  annually,  at  ther  rate  of  -  one 
pound  in  silver  for  three  in  paper — the  current  value  at 
this  time  of  the  New  England  bills  of  credit.  But  these 
new  issues  having  sunk  the  paper  to  four  and  a  half  for 
onejf  the  merchants'  notes  became  too  valuable  to  circu- 
late, and  were  hoarded  by  the  holders.  A  similar  com- 
pany in  New  Hampshire  undertook  to  issue  similar  bills ; 
but  this  company  was  denounced  in  Boston  as  insolvent 
and  fraudulent. 

The  Assembly  of  New  Hampshire  dissolved  by  the 
death  of  George  I.  had  been  in  existence  for  five  years 
— too  long  a  term,  in  the  opinion  of  the  inhabitants  of 
1727.  that  province.      The  new  Assembly  limited  its  own  ex- 
I)ec-     istence  and  that  of  its  successors  to  three  years.      The 
same  act — a  sort  of  Constitution  for  the  province — gave 
the  right  of  voting  for  members  of  Assembly  to  all  per- 
sons, whether  residents  or  not,  possessing  within  the  dis- 
trict for  which  the  election  was  held  a  freehold  property 


NEW  HAMPSHIRE  ANI^v-M  AS  SACHUSETTS.       355 

of  £50,  $166,     To  be  a  representative  one  must  pos-  CHAPTER 
sess  six  times  that  qualification^     The  council,  which     , 
consisted  of  twelve -members  appointed  by  the  king,  ex-  1727. 
ercised  judicial  authority,  also,  as  a  Court  of  Appeals. 
Burnet  had  easily  obtained  from  the  New  Hampshire 
Assembly   a   salary  of  d£200  sterling,  to 'continue   for 
three  years,  or  so  long  as  he  held  office ;   and  a  similar 
grant  was  made  to  Belcher. 

To  the  dispute  with  Massachusetts  respecting  the  ter^ 
ritory  west  of  the  Merrimac,  a  new  one  was  added,  as, 
to  the  boundary  between  New  Hampshire  and  Maine. 
That  boundary,  by  Gorges's  charter,  was  the  Salmon 
Falls  River,  and  a  line  from  its  northernmost  head,  ex- 
tending "  northwestwardly"  sixty  miles.  According  to 
Massachusetts,  that  line  ought  to  run  due  northwest ; 
New  Hampshire  insisted  on  its  inclining  just  enough 
to  the  west  not  to  be  a  north  line.  Had  the  claims  of 
Massachusetts  prevailed,  New  Hampshire,  limited  to  the 
tract  south  of  Lake  Winnipisiogee  and  east  of  the  Mer- 
rimac, might,  perhaps,  have  been  absorbed  into  the  larger 
province — a  reunion  once  earnestly  desired,  and  still  the 
wish  of  a  portion  of  the  people.  But  another  portion, 
headed  by  Dunbar,  surveyor  general  of  the  royal  WQods> 
who  had -received,  on  Wentworth's  death,  the  appoint-  1733. 
ment  of  lieutenant  governor,  violently  opposed  this  an- 
nexation. Belcher,  governor  of  both  provinces,  but  ac- 
cused of  leaning  to  the  interests  of  Massachusetts,  had 
a  difficult  part  to  play.  Fond  of  pomp  and  show,  he 
lived  in  a  style  hitherto  unknown  in  New  England.  He 
first  established  the  Cadets,  a  select  military  company 
of  aristocratic  young  men,  to  act  as  the  governor's  guard. 
He  did  not  lack  talent ;  tie  was  a  good  deal  of  a  political 
manager ;  but  his  lordly  manner  and  free  speech  made 
him  many  enemies. 


356  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER       T^he  British  merchants  interested  in  the  sugar  trade 

XXIV  • 

complained  loudly  of  the  increasing  traffic  between  North 

17U3.  America  arid  the  French  sug'ar  islands,  whence  a  supply 
of  sugar  and  -molasses  was  obtained  free  of  those  inter- 
colonial duties  to  which  "enumerated  articles"  from  Brit- 
ish colonies  were  subject. 

The  New  Englanders  had  even  set  on  foot  a  manu- 
facture of  rum  out  of  molasses  purchased  of  the  French, 
thtfs  becoming  competitors  with  the  British  sugar -isl- 
ands in  that  baneful  but  lucrative  product.  The  chief 
seats  of  this  New  England  distillation  were  Newport, 
which  had  jisen  to  be  the  fourth  or  fifth  town  in  the  col- 
onies, and  Boston,  which  still  remained  the  first,  though 
Philadelphia  and  New  York  were  now  rapidly  gaining 
upon  it. 

To  put  a  st,op  to  this  traffic,  and  to  compel  the  North 
American  colonies  to  supply  themselves  with  sugar,  and 
especially  with  molasses  and  rum,  from  the  British  West 
Indies,  a  duty  was  imposed  by  act  of  Parliament  equiv- 
alent to  one  ceint  per  pound  on  sugar,  twelve  cents  per 
gallon  on  molasses,  and  eighteen  cents  per  gallon  on 
rum  imported  from  the  French  or  Dutch  West  Indies. 
Rhode  Island  protested  against  the  passage  of  this  act  as 
"  highly  prejudicial  to  her  charter,"  'but  the  Commons 
refused  to '  receive  the  petition  on  the  ground  that  this 
was  a  money  bill— --the  same  ground  assumed  on  a  sim- 
ilar, but  more  momentous  occasion  some  thirty  years 
later.  New  York,  in  a  petition  to  the  Lords,  alleged 
that  it  was  only  in  the  produce  of  the  West  India  Isl- 
ands that  the  northern  colonies  could  be  paid  for  their 
exports  thither,  which  exports  constituted  their  sole 
means  for  purchasing  the  manufactures  of  Great  Brit- 
ain. Partridge,  the  agent  for  New  York,  in  his  letter  to 
the  Duke  of  Newcastle  inclosing  this  petition,  took  still 


M6LASSES  ACT.  357 

higher  ground,     "  Besides  the  injury,  the  bill  will  be  in  CHAPTER 
itself,-  almost  tantamount  to  a  prohibition,  it  is  divesting  . 
the  colonists  of  their  rights  -as  the  king's  natural-born 
subjects  and  Englishmen,  in  levying -subsidies  upon  them 
against  their  consent,  when  they  are  annexed  to  no  coun- 
ty in  Great  Britain,  have  no  representatives  in  Parlia- 
ment, nor  are  any  part  of  the  Legislature  of  this  kingdom." 

The  General  Court  of  Massachusetts,  vexed  at  the 
passage  of  this  "  Molasses  Act,"  as  it  was  called,  severe- 
ly reprimanded  an  inhabitant  of  that  colony  who  had 
given  evidence  on  the  occasion  before  a  parliamentary 
committee—a  proceeding  which  occasioned  a  resolution 
of  the  House  of  Commons,  "  that  the  presuming  to  call 
any  person  to  account  for  evidence  given  before  that 
House  was  an  audacious  proceeding,  and  a  high  viola- 
tion of  their  privileges."  Limited  at  first  to  three  years, 
the  Molasses  Act  was  continued  from  time  to  time.  It 
was  easier,  however,  to  pass  the  act  than  to  collect  du- 
ties systematically  evaded,  not  by  a  few  smugglers  only, 
but  by  the  whole  body  of  colonial  traders.  Large  quan- 
tities of  foreign  molasses  were  imported,  but  the  amount 
of  duty  paid  upon  it  was  very  small. 

In  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  Burnet  had  been  sue-  1728. 
ceeded  by  John  Montgomery,  gentleman  of  the  bed-cham- 
ber to  George  II.,  to  whose  favor  he  owed  the  appoint- 
ment. Of  moderate  abilities  and  mild  temper,  the  new 
governor  chose  not  to  involve  himself  in  a  quarrel  with 
the  Assembly,  to  whom,  in  spite  of  the  remonstrances 
of  the  Council,  he  conceded  the  right  to  fix  and  regulate 
salaries.  He  also  omitted  to  hold  the  Court  of  Chan- 
cery, of  which  the  Assembly  denied  the  legality.  In  re- 
turn for  these  concessions,  he  obtained  the  vote  of  a  five 
years'  revenue.  During  his  administration,  the  bound- 
ary between  New  York  and  Connecticut  was  finally  run 


358         HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  and  settled,  in  substantial  accordance  with  th6  agreement 
X^V' .  of  1683.     The  population  of  the  city  of  New  York,  by 

1731.  an  official. census,  now  amounted  to  eight  thousand  six 
hundred  and  twenty -two. 

1732.  William  Cosby,  a  half-pay  colonel,  the  successor  of 
Sept    Mopjgomery,  complained  to   the  Board  of  Trade  that 

.  ^-the  example  of  the  Boston  people" — engaged,  as  we 
have  just  seen,  in  a  violent  struggle  with  their  governor 
— had  so  far  infected  New  York  vas  to  make  the  manage- 
ment of  the  delegates  "  more  difficult  than  he  could  have 
imagine^"  He  succeeded,  however,  by  the  influence  of 
Delancey  and  Clarke,  whom  he  adopted  as  favorites,  in 
obtaining  from  an  Assembly,  continued  from  the  time  of 
his  predecessor,  a  renewal  pf.  the  five  years'  revenue. 
Delancey,  a  young  man  of  decided  ability,  a  native  of  the 
province,  and  a  graduate  of  Cambridge,  had  been  called 
to  the  council  by  Montgomery  ;,  Clarke,  an  Englishman, 
had  immigrated  to  New  York. some  thirty  years  before. 
Violent  and  mercenary,  Cosby  soon  involved  himself  in 
a  bitter  quarrel  with  several  members  of  the  council, 
hitherto  leading  supporters  of  prerogative,  including  Van 
Dam,  the  president,  Morris,  the  chief  justice,  Alexander, 
now  secretary,  of  the  province,  and  Smith,  an  eminent 
lawyer,-  English  by  birth,  an  emigrant  'to  the  colony 
cotemporaneously  with  Alexander  and  'Golden.  Cosby 
brought  a  suit  against  Van- Dam  to  recover 'half  the 
fees  which,  as  president  >  of  the  cotmcil  and  acting  gov- 
ernor, he  had  received  in  the  interval  between  Mont- 
gomery's death  and  Cosby's  arrival.  A  majority  of  the 
council  denied  the  governor's  right  to  preside  over  their 
legislative  deliberations  ;  and  though  the  practice  had 
been  Such  hitherto,  on  an  appeal  to  England  t'he; objection 
was  sustained.  Provoked  by  Morris's  opposition-/  espe- 
cially his  adverse  opinion  in  the  suit  against  Van  Dam, 


FIRST  POLITICAL  NEWSPAPER.  359 

Cosby  deprived  the  chief  justice  of  his  office,  and,  with-  CHAPTER 

out  asking  the  consent  of  the  council,  appointed  Delan- 

cey  to  fill  it.  He  suspended  Van  Dam  and  several  other  1732. 
counselors  in  the  same  arbitrary  way,  pretending  to  the 
Board  of  Trade  "  that  it  was  necessary  to  insist  on  the 
king's  prerogative  at  a  time  when  his  authority  is  so 
avowedly  opposed  at  Boston,  and  proper  to  make  exam- 
ples of  men  in  order  to  deter  others  from  being  advocates 
for  Boston  principles." 

In  this  emergenpy,  for  the  first  time  in  America,  the 
newspaper  press  was  .employed  as  a  political  engine. 
The  New  York  Gazette,  a  newspaper  established  a.  few  1725. 
years  before,  was  in  the^  interest  of  the  governor.  The 
Weekly  Journal,  a  new  paper,  published,  by  John  Peter 
Zenger,  was  filled  with  articles  written  by  the  dissatis- 
fied counselors,  freely  criticizing  the  conduct  of  the  gov- 
ernor, attacking  the  Assembly  which  had  voted  the  five 
years'  revenue,  and  even  denying  the  legality  of  taxes, 
in  the  imposition  of  .which,  by  his  presence  in  the  coun-  1733. 
oil,  the  governor  had  illegally  participated.  Not  content 
with  replying  through  the  Gazette,  Cosby  and  his  ex- 
purgated council  ordered  the  Journal  to  be  burned  by  the 
sheriff,  imprisoned  the  publisher,  and  prosecuted  him  for 
a  libel.  Smith  and  Alexander,  retained  as  his  counsel, 
denied  the  jurisdiction  of  the  court  on  the  ground  of  the 
illegal  appointment  of  the  chief  justice.  Their  refusal 
to  withdraw  this  objection  was  treated  as  a  can  tempt,  for 
which  they  were  punished  by  being  struck  from  the  roll 
of  practitioners.  Zenger,  however,  did  not  lack  a/  de- 
fender. On  the  day  of  trial,  to  the  surprise  of  the  pros- 
ecutors, there  appeared  in  his  behalf,  having  been  secretly 
retained  for  that  purpose,  Andrew  Hamilton,  speaker  of 
thq  Pennsylvania  Assembly,  a  Quaker  lawyer  of  Phila- 
delphia, to  whose  reputation  for  experience  and  learning 


fc 

36,0  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  a  venerable  age  gave  weight:     Hamilton  offered  to  prove 

L-the  truth  of  the  alleged  libel;  but  Delancey,  following 

1733.  English  precedents,  would  not  admit  it.  He  then  ap- 
pealed to  the  personal  knowledge  of  the  jury ;  no  evi- 
dence was  necessary ;  the  facts  were  notorious  ;  the  jury 
knew  the  .statements  complained  of  to  be  true  :  and  they 
ought  to  be  obliged  to  Zenger  for 'having  published  them. 
It  was  not  his  cauge',  it  was  the  cause  of  the  province. 
In  spite  of  the  instructions  and  efforts  of  the  court,  this 
appeal  to  popular  feeling  prevailed.  The  jury's  verdict 
of  acquittal  was  received  with  shouts  of  applause.  The 
corporation  of  New  York  conferred  the  freedom  of  the 
city,  on  the  successful  advocate.  The  freedom  of  the  co- 
lonial press  was  vindicated ;  but,  as  too  often  happens 
in  'such  cases,  the  poor  printer,  having  served  a  purpose, 
was  left  to  struggle,  overwhelmed  with  debts,  the  victim 
of  official  odium. 

1735.  Co^by, having  died  suddenly  while  these  disputes  were 
still  raging,  .George  Clarke,  whom  successive  suspen- 
sions had  made  senior  counselor,  claimed  to  fill,  in  that 
capacity,  the  vacant  chair.  The  opposition  maintained 
that  Van  Bam,  whose  suspension  had  never  been  con- 
firmed in  England,  was  still  senior  counselor,  and,  as 
such,  entitled  to  the  place  of  acting  governor.  Both 
Van  Dam  and  Clarke  assumed  authority  and  issued  or- 
ders;  and  so  exasperated  were  parties,  that  it  was  only 
the  two  independent  companies  in  garrison  at  New  York 
that  prevented  them. from  actually  coming  to  blows. 

Confirmed  in  the  temporary  'administration  l>y  the  ar- 
rival of  a  -royal  instruction,  and  shortly  after  appointed 
1737^  lieutenant  governor,  Clarke  endeavored  to  accommodate 
matters  by  calling  a  new  Assembly.  But  the  delegates 
would  grant  a'  revenue  only  for  one  year; — a  policy  to 
which,  thenceforward,  they'  firmly  adhered.  They  also 


NEW  YORK  AND  NEW  JERSEY.  361 

passed  a  bill  for  triennial  assemblies ;  but  that  was  re-  CHAP.TER 

jected  in  England.  '_ 

The  introduction  of  the  paper  money  loan  system  into  1737. 
New  York  might  serve  to  confirm  Clarke's  popularity, 
the  more  so  as  his  consent  to  it  could  hardly  be  recon- 
ciled with  the  standing  royal  instructions.   ,  By  an  act 
now  passed,  £48,350  of  new  paper  money  was  created,    , 
of  which,  to  save  appearances,  and  to  give  Clarke  a  pre- 
tense for  passing  the  act,  £8350  was  to  be  applied  to  the  ' 
current  uses  of  the  province.     The  remaining  £40,'QOO 
was  distributed  among  the  counties,  to  be  let  out  on  loan 
for  twelve  years  at  five  per  cent.,  in  sums  of  not  more 
than  £1QO  nor  less  than  £25,  secured  by  mortgages,  the 
interest^ to  be  appropriated,  first  to  take  up  the  £8350, 
and  then  to  the  general  uses  of  the  province.      The  time 
of  the  repayment  of  the  principal  was  extended  by  sub- 
sequent acts,  but  no  increase  in  the  amount  loaned  seems 
ever  to  have  been  made- 
Smith  and  Alexander  were  restored  ,to  the  bar.     By 
Smith's  exertions,  a  law  was  passed  disfranchising  the  1738. 
Jews,  of  whom  a  few  had  been  settled  in  New  York  since 
the  times  of  the  Dutch  regime,  but  whose  rights  were 
now  sacrificed  to  religious  bigotry. 

'  Pursuing  the  same  moderate  policy  in  New  Jersey  as  1728. 
in  New  York,  Montgomery  was  content  with  annual 
grants  of  revenue.  On  his  death  the  Assembly  petitioned"  1732. 
for  a  separate  governor  ;  indeed,  it  had  long  been  regarded 
as  a  grievance  that  the  governor,  the  chief  justice,- and 
all  the  principal  officers  of  the  province  should  be  resi- 
dent in  New  York.  This  petition,  however,  was  not 
granted,  and  Cosby's  rule  was  equally  turbulent  in  both 
provinces.  After  his  death  the  wish  of  the  people  pre- 
vailed, and  Lewis  Morris,  long  president  of  the  council, 
was  compensated  for  his  loss- of  the  chief  justiceship  of 


362  HISTORY   OF.  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  New  York,  of  which  Cosby 's  violence  had  deprived  him, 
.-  by  an  appointment  as  governor  of  New  Jersey.  This 
1732.  appointment  occasioned  great  rejoicings,  and  Morris,  in 
the  exhilaration  of  the  moment,  prevailed  on  the  Assem- 
bly to  grant  a  three  years'  revenue.  But  subsequent 
occurrences  abundantly  satisfied  him  of  the  truth  of  a 
statement  he  had-  formerly  made,  that  the  inclination, 
common  to  all  the  provinces,  to  fender  governors  and  all 
other  officers  entirely  dependent  on  the  people,  "  was  no- 
where pursued  with  more  steadiness  or  less  decency  than 
in 'New  Jersey." 

On  the  banks  of  the  Savannah  a  new  colony,  mean- 
while, was  struggling  into  existence.,  Its  founder  was 
James  Edward  Oglethorpe,  a  gentleman  of  family  and 
.  fortune,  an  officer  in  the  English  army,  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  already  distinguished  by  his  zeal 
against  imprisonment  for  debt,  and  on  the  general  sub- 
ject of  prison  discipline,  then  first  beginning  to  attract  at- 
tention in  England.  Desirous  to  provide  in  America  a 
place  of  refuge  for  such  discharged  prisoners  and  others 
of  the  suffering  poor  as  might  be  willing  to  commence 
there  d  life  of  industry  and  sobriety,  in  conjunction  with 
Lord  Percival  and  several  other  noblemen  and  gentle- 
men, Oglethorpe  petitioned  the  king  to  erect  into  a  new 
proprietary  province  that  part  of  the  recently -purchased 
Carolina  south  of  the  Savannah,  to  be  settled  for  this 
particular  object.  The  favor  of  the  merchants  was  con- 
ciliated by  promises  of  wine  and  silk,  proposed  as  staples 
for  the  new  colony.  Politicians  were  interested  by  the 
prospect  of  a  military  barrier  for  the  rich  but  weak  colo- 
ny of  South  Carolina  against  the  Spaniards,  with  whom 
difficulties  and  disputes  were  already  arising.  To  zeal- 
ous Protestants  was  offered  a  refuge  for  their  continental 
brethren  still  exposed  to  religious  persecution.  Th«  pi- 


SETTLEMENT   OF   GEORGIA.  3^3 

dus  were  attracted  by  promises  of  Indian  conversion,  that  CHAPTER 
old  pretext,  not  yet  entirely  ,worn  out.  The  Board  of  .  ' 
Trade  having  reported  favorably,  a  charter  issued,  con-  1732. 
veying  seven  undivided  eighth  parts,  of  the  territory  be-  'June  9 
tween  the  Savannah  and  the  Altamaha,  and  from  the 
heads  of  those  rivers  westward,  to  the  Pacific,  to  twenty- 
one  trustees,  "for  establishing  the  colony  of  GEORGIA 
in  .America."  Lord  Carteret  presently  .conveyed  to  the 
same  trustees  the  remaining  eighth  part  of  the  territory, 
appertaining  to  him  as  one  of  the  late  proprietaries  of 
Carolina.  These  trustees,  by  the  charter,  had  unlimit- 
ed power  to  increase  their  own  number,  and  exclusive 
right  of  legislation  for  the  province  for  twenty-one  years  ; 
but  their  apts  had  no  force  until  first  approved  by  the 
king  in  council,  nor  could  they  be  repugnant  to  the 
laws  of  England.  A  "  free  exercise  of  religion"  was 
guaranteed  fa  all  inhabitants  "  except  papists,"  and  to 
"  all  and  every  the  persons  that  shall  happen  to  be'i>ora 
within  the  said  province,"  and  tfreir  children  and  poster- 
ity, "all  liberties,  franchises,  and  immunities  of  free  den- 
izens and  natural-born  subjects,"  inv  all  respects  as  if  born 
within  the  kingdom  of  Great  Britain.  The  executive 
affairs  of  the  corporation  were  intrusted  to  a  common 
council  of  thirty-four  persons,,  fifteen  nominated  in  the 
charter  to  hold  office  during  good  behavior,  the  remain- 
der to  be  elected  by  the  trustees,  who  were  also  to  fill 
all  vacancies.  This  common  council  might  grant  lands 
on  such  terms  as  they  saw  fit,  but  not  to  any  trustee, 
directly  nor  indirectly,  nor  any  greater,  quantity  to  the 
use  of  any  one  person,  either  entire  or  in  parcels,  than  five 
hundred  acres.  The  object  was  to  prevent  that  engross- 
ment sof  lands  which  had  given  rise  to  loud  complaints 
in  Virginia  and  Carolina.  An  annual  account  was  to  be 
rendered  of  the  receipt  and  expenditure  of  all  moneys. 


364  'HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER       The-  trustees  entered  on  their  office  full  of  zeal  and 

XXIV 

hopes,      Th^ir  official  seal  had  for  its  device  a  group  of 

1732.  silk- worms,  with  the  motto  "Non''sibi  sed  aliis" — "  Not 
July>  for  themselves,  but  others."  JVtore  than  a  hundred  cler- 
gymen received,  at  their -own  request,  commissions  to 
collect  funds  for  the  ,trust.  Twenty-four  noblemen  and 
gentlemen  were  specially  commissioned  for  the  same  pur- 
pose. Several  of  the  dignified  clergy  gave  freely.  The 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  promised  to 
co-operate.  The  directors  of  the  Bank  of  England  made 
a  handsome  donation.  Great  things  were  promised. 
The  poor-rates  were  to  be  reduced,  the  Work-houses  and 
debtors'  prisons  emptied.  Their  unfortunate  inmates, 
saved  the  necessity  of  a  long  servitude  to  pay  for  their 
passage,  "carried  gratis  to  a1  land  of  liberty  and  plenty," 
and  furnished  by  the  funds  of  the  society  with  all  nec- 
essaries for  occupying  their  lands,  "were  to  forget  their 
sorrows"  "  in  possession  of  a  competent  estate  in  a  hap- 
pier climate  than  they  knew  before."  England  was  to 
be  saved  half  a  million  sterling  yearly  in  the  article  of 
raw  silk.  Madeira  was  to  be  outdone  in  wine,  and  Tur^ 
key  in  drugs. 

Inconsiderate  compassion  led  in  the  outset  to  a  fatal 
mistake.  So  far  as  related  to  English  emigrants,  the 
trustees  confined  their  charity  to  such  as  had  fallen  into 
misfortunes  by  trade — sailors,  husbandmen,  and  laborers 
from  the.  country,  the  very  sort  of  persons  needed  for 
pioneers,  were-  not  permitted  to  share  it.  The  colonists 
were  thus  selected  from  among  the  most  helpless,  queru- 
lous, and  grasping  portion  of  the  community,  men  in  a 
hurry  to  grow 'rich,  not  by  their  own  labor,  but  by  spec- 
ulation and  management.  Great  pains  were  taken  to  ex- 
clude those  of  bad  morals,  not,  however,  with  very  good 
success.  Many  of  the  English  emigrants  proved  in  the 


f   - 


.     ;~'*Xi     -  •* 


SETTLEMENT  OF  GEOROIA.  355 

end  as  worthless  as  they  were  discontented  and  trouble-  CHAPTER 

XXIV. 

some.  ' 

Oglethorpe  volunteered  to  superintend  the  .planting  of  1732. 
the  first  colony,  which  the  trustees  had  resolved  to  fix  on 
the  Savannah.  For  this  enterprise  thirty-five,  families, 
numbering  about  a  hundred  and  thirty -five  persons,  em- 
barked at  Deptford,  below  London,  in  the  Anne,  of  two  Nov.  17. 
hundred  tons,  having  with  them  a. clergyman,  a  supply 
of  Bibles,  Prayer-books,  and  Catechisms,  and  a  person 
to  instruct  in  the  production  of  silk ;  also  a  recorder, 
three  bailiffs,  two  constables,  two  tithing-rnen,  and  eight 
conservators  of  the  peace,  appointed  by  the  trustees — 
the  recorder  and  bailiffs  together  to  constitute  a  town 
court,  with  universal  jurisdiction.  Touching  at  Charles-  1733. 
ton,  Oglethorpe  and  his .  colonists  were  liberally  enter-  J  17- 
tained,  and  furnished,  by  vote  of  the  South  Carolina  As- 
sembly, with  cattle,  a  supply  of  rice, -and  boats.  The 
colonists  were  temporarily  landed  at  Beaufort.  Bull, 
president  of  the  South  Carolina  council,  volunteered  his 
services  to  assist  Oglethorpe  in  exploring  the  Savannah. 
A  sandy  blufi^  wooded  with  pines,  on  the  right  bank  of 
that  river,  about  twenty  miles  from  the  mouth,  high  in 
comparison  with  the  uniform  level,  was  selected  as  the 
site  for  the  town.  This  bluff,  called  Yamacraw,  was  oc- 
cupied by  a  small  band  of  the  Creek  confederacy ;  but, 
through  the  agency  of  Mary  Musgrove,  an  Indian  wom- 
an of  the  family  of  the  ^chee  chiefs,  who  had  been  edu- 
cated in  Charleston,  and  had  afterward  married  an  En-, 
glish  trader,  and  who  now  acted  as  interpreter  to  Ogle- 
thorpe, the  Indians  were  induced  to  consent  to  the  set- 
tlement. Transferred  thither,  the  colonists  commenced 
the  erection  of  their  houses.  In  a  formal  council  ^>res-  May  is. 
ently  held,  to  which  all  the  chiefs  were,  invited,  the 
Creeks  agreed  to  yield  up  to  the^  settlers  all  the  lands  be- 


366  HISTORY, OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  low  tide- water  between  the  Savannah  and  the  Altama- 

XXI  v. 

ha,  except  the  three  southern  islands  on  the  -^oast,  and 

1733.  a  reservation  above  the  new  town.  That  town,  divided 
July,  into  four  wards,  and  called  SAVANNAH,  was  laid  out  in  lots 
of  sixty  feet  by  ninety,  a  garden  near  by  of  five  acres 
being  attached  to  each  lot,  and  a  farm  of  forty-five  acres 
a  little  further  inland.  Beyond  the  town  lands  villages 
were  to  begin,  every  four  to  constitute  a  .ward  without, 
to  be  attached  to  a  ward  within,  the  object  being  that, 
in  case  a  war  should  happen,  "  the  villages  without  may 
have  places  in  the  town  to  bring  their  cattle  and  families 
into  for  refuge^"  for  which  purpose  a  square  was  left  in 
every  ward  "  big  enough  for  the  out  wards  to  encamp 
in."  A  battery  of  five  cannon  commanded  the  river. 
On  the  land  side  a  palisade  was  erected.  An  experi- 
mental garden  of  ten  acres  was  laid  out  for  vines,  mul- 
berry trees,  and  valuable  drugs  and  exotics.  A  trustees' 
store-house  was  .built,  the  keeper  of  which  soon  became 
the  most  important  man  in  the  colony. 

A  hundred  and  fifty  new  emigrants,  sent  over  by  the 
trustees,  presently  arrived;  also  forty  Jews,  fitted  out  with 
funds  which  three  Jewish  gentlemen  had  collected,  but 
about  the  appropriation  of  which  the  trustees  had  not  been 
consulted.  Fearing  to  alarm  the  bigotry  of  the  public, 
on  whose  charity  they  depended,  or  themselves,  ,perhaps, 
sharing  that  bigotry,  the  trustees  disclaimed  any  inten- 
tion "  to  rnake  Georgia  a  Jews'  colony,"  and  sent  ex- 
press,  orders  to  Oglethorpe  to  give  these  Israelites  no  en- 
couragement. They  remained,  -however,  at  Savannah, 
and  opened  a  synagogue,  and,  though  many  of  them  sub- 
sequently removed  to  Charleston,  their  descendants  have 
furnished  many  good  citizens  to  Georgia. 

In  those  valleys  of  the  Western  Alps  included  within 
the  archbishopric  of  Salzburg,  in  which,  long  before  Lu- 


SETTLEMENT   OF   GEORGIA,  3(37 

thef's  time,  seeds  of  the  Reformation  had .  sprung  up.  CHAPTER 

XXIV 

the  Lutheran  inhabitants,  after  many  yeajs  .of  peace,  . 
had  lately  become  objects  of  persecution  by  a  zealous  1733. 
priest,  at  once  spiritual  and  temporal  sovereign  of  that 
principality.     Their  case  excited  much  sympathy  in  En- 
gland.    The  friends  of  Oglethorpe  in  Parliament  had.  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  for  the  use  of  Georgia  the  £10,000 
originally  promised  to  Berkeley's  Bermuda  College,  and  a 
part  of  that  money  was  appropriated  to  pay  the  expenses 
^)f  seventy -eight  Salzburgers,  who  traveled  across   the 
continent  from  Augsburg,  singing  psalms  on  the  way; 
descended  the  Rhine,  embarked  at  Rotterdam,  touched  Dec.  2. 
at  Denver,  where  they  had  an  interview  with  the  trustees, 
and  presently  arrived  in  Geprgia.     This  "evangelical  1734. 
community,"  as  they  called  themselves,  headed  by  the 
ministers  Baltzius  and  Groriau,  were  established  some 
distance  above  Savannah?  at  a.  village  which  they  called 
Ebenezer,  where  they  were  joined  from  time  to  time  by 
new  recruits  from  Salzburg,  and  soon  formed  an  indus- 
trious and  thriving  community. 

Too  busy  to  accept  an  invitation  from  the  General 
Court  of  Massachusetts  to  pay  a  visit  to  that  province, 
Oglethorpe  hastened  to  England,  taking  with  him  sev-  April, 
eral  Creek  chiefs,  also  eight  pounds  of  Georgia  silk,  out 
of  which  a  robe  was  manufactured  for  the  queen.  There 
existed  already  at  his  departure,  besides  Savannah  and 
Ebenezer,  an  intermediate  settlement  called  Abercorn, 
two  villages  of  Hampstead  and  Highgate  four  miles  south 
of  Savannah,  and  lodgments  also  at  one  or  two  other 
points.  ' 

Count  Zinzendorf,  leader  of  the  Moravians  or  United 
Brethren,  had  opened  a  correspondence,  with  the  trustees, 
and,  being  promised  a  grant  of  land,  ten  of  his  followers  -j/?or 
presently  arrived  in  Georgia,  with  special  view  to  the     jan. 


368  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  conversion  df  the  Indians.      They  established  themselves 


xxiv. 


on  the  Ogeechee,  directly  south  of  Savannah. 


1735.'  To  persons  emigrating  to  Georgia  at  their  own  ex- 
pense, except  papists,  who  were  not  to  be  allowed  at  all, 
the  trustees  offered  fifty  acres  of  land  for  each  indented 
servant — but  no  grant  was  to  exceed  five  hundred  acres. 
Servants,  .at  the  expiration  of  their  service,  were  to  be 
entitled  to  twenty  acres  each.  Fifty  acres,  subject  io  a 
quit-rent  of  ten  shillings,  were  granted  to  each  emigrant 
sent  out  by  the  trustees.  As  the  colony  was  to  form  a 
'  military  barrier,  all  lands,  on  the  failure  of  male  heirs, 
were  to  revert  to  the  trustees,  saving  dower  to  the  widow. 
For  the  same  reason,  and  to  prevent  the  engrossment  of 
'  lands,  no  alienations  were  to  be  allowed  without  special 
license.  The  use  of  rum  was  prohibited  ;  and,  the  better 
to  exclude  this  source  of  demoralization,  all  trade  with 
the.  West  Indies  was  forbidden.  The  trustees  did  not 
wish  to  see  their  province  "  void  of  white  inhabitants, 
filled  with  blacks,  the  precarious  property  of  a  few,  equal- 
ly exposed  to  domestic  treachery  and  foreign  invasion." 
They,  prohibited  negro  slavery,  not  only  as  unjust'  and 
cruel — for  so  it  was  beginning  to  be  esteemed  by  all  the 
more  intelligent  and  humane — but  as  fatal  to  the  inter- 
ests of  the  poor  white  settlers,  for  whose  special  benefit 
the  colony  had  been  projected. 

An  additional  parliamentary  grant  of  £26,000  having 
recruited  the  finances  of  the  trustees,  steps  were  taken 
for  occupying  the  frontier  toward  Florida,  A  party  of 
Scotch  Highlanders,  from  the  Glen  of  Stralbdean,  with 
John  M'Leod,  of  the  Isle  of  Skye,  for  their  minister, 

1736.  founded  New  Inverness  on  the  Akamaha.     A  new  com- 
Jan'     pany  of  two  hundred  and  twenty-one  persons,  amply  fit- 
ted out  by  the  trustees,  with  the  promise  of  a  mainte- 
nance for  a  year,  and  even  permission  to  take  an  in- 


SETTLEMENT  OF  GEORGIA. 


369 


dented  servant  for  .each  family,  to  be  clothed  and  sup-  C&APTER 

'•  XXIV 

ported  one  year  at  the  trustees'  expense,  embarked  un-  ' 

der  Oglethorpe.    With  this  embarkation  went  two  young  1736. 
clergymen,  John  and  Charles  Wesley,  famous  afterward 
as  the  founders  of  Methodism. 

A  new  town,  called  Frederica,  placed  under  a  munici-  Feb. 
pal  government  like  that  of  Savannah,  was  established  on 
the  Island  of  St.  Simon's.  The  inlet  by  which  that  isl-  •  ,  , 
and  is  separated  from  the  main  land  was  considered  "the 
most  southern  stream  of  the  Altamaha,"  and  the -island 
therefore  within  .the  limits  of  the  charter.  .A  po^t  called 
Augusta  was  established  by  Oglethorpe's  orders  at  the 
head  of  boat  navigation  on  the  Savannah.  Besides  the 
river,  a  horse-path  through  the  woods  connected  Augusta 
with  the  lower  settlements,  and  it  soon  became  the  seat' 
of  a  .vigorous  Indian  traffic.  Several  posts  were  afea 
occupied  along  the  coast  south  of  Frederica,  even  as  far 
as  the  St.  John's,  claimed  for  a  boundary  by  the  ^English- 
by  virtue  of  the-  Carolina  charter  and  the  Spanish,  treaty 
of  1670.  But  this  approach  toward  St.  Augustine  gave 
great  offense  to  the  Spaniards. 

The  Wesleys,  meanwhile,  were  not  without-  their  tri- 
als. Through  the-  arts  and,  falsehoods  of  t>o  women, 
reformed  prostitutes,  admitted  into  the  company,  at  the 
earnest  request  of  the  Wesleys,  but  against  Oglethorpe's 
opinion,  Charles,  who  accompanied  Oglethorpe  -to  Frede- 
rica,  fell  into  disgrace  with  his  patron,  and  was  treated'  .  '."^ 

for  a  while  with  much  indignity.  Oglethorpe's  goodness 
of  heart  soon  led,  however,'- to  an  explanation,  and  Charles 
Wesley  was  sent  to  England  as  bearer  of  dispatches, 
whither  Oglethorpe  presently  followed,  to  provide  means  Nov. 
of  defense  against  the  Spaniards,  who  had  warmly  .re- 
monstrated against  his  encroachments. 

John  Wesley,  distinguished  as,  yet  only  by  a  high  de- 
II— A  A 


3-70,  HISTORY   OJ   THE   UNITED   STATES.. 

(  •  .  •.  •    '• 

CHAPTER  gree  of  religious  asceticism,  and  an  ultra  adherence  to 
_____  the  rubric  of  that  Prayer-book  which  he  presently  re- 

1736.  nounced,  was  rnuch  pleased  at  first  with  his  situation 
as  parish  minister  of  Savannah.      His  parishioners  were 
equally  pleased  with  him,  and  balk  were  deserted  to  listen 
to  his  preaching.      But  his  zeal  and  exactions  soon  gave 
offense.     He  himself  also  fell  into  a  snare,  becoming,  the 
lover  of  a  young  lady  who  made  great  pretensions  to  pie- 

/  ty,  as  he  suggests  in  his  journal,  on  purpose  to  entrap  him. 
The  remonstrances  of  his  friend  Delamotte,  the  school- 
master, and  the  advice  of  the  Moravian  elders,  having  in- 
duced him  to  break  off  this  connection,  the  lady  showed 
her  spirit,  and  dissimulation  also,  as  Wesley  thought,  by 
immediately  marrying  another  person.  Growing  less 
scrupulous  than  formerly  in  the  performance  of  her  re- 
ligious duties,  Wesley,  according  to  the  strict  rule  he 
tad  Jaid  down,  after  some  public  reproofs,  which  she 
took  in  very  bad  part,  refused  to  admit  her  to  the  Lord's 
Supper.  For  this  attack  on  her  religious  character,  trer 

1737.  husband  claimed  damages  to  the  arnount  of  £1000.    The 
grand  jury  found  two  bills  against  Wesley,  charging  him 
with  this  and  eight  other  abuses  of  his  ecclesiastical  au- 
thority, and  also  with  speaking  and  writing  to  the  lady 
againslher  husband's  consent.    Wesley  denied  the  juris- 
diction of  the  court  as  to  the  ecclesiastical  charges.    The 
quarrel  grew  hotter  and  hotter,  and  finally,  by  advice  of 
the  Moravians,  he  gave  notice  of  his  intention  to  proceed 
to  England,  there  to  lay  the  -matter  before  the  trustees. 
The  magistrates  having  demanded  a  bond  for  his  ap- 
pearance to  answer  'the  suit  against  him,  he  refused  to 
give  it,  and  they,  in  consequence,  forbade  his  departure. 
But  "'he  saw  clearly  the  hour*  was  come ;  and,  as  soon 
as*  evening  prayer  was  over,  the  tide  then  serving,  he 
shook  the  dust  off  his  feet,"  and  left  Georgia.      He  reach- 


SETTLEMENT  OF  GEORGIA  371 

ed  Charleston  not  without  some  hardships,  and  there  em-  CHAPTER 

' 

barked  for  England ;  nor  did  he  ever  revisit  America.  • ' 
The  lands  of  Lower  Georgia  were  either  sandy  plains, 
far  from  fertile,  or  swamps,  which  it  required  labor,  and 
perseverance  to  clear.  The  Germans  at  Ebenezer,  the' 
Highlanders  at  Darien,  were  industrious  and  contented, 
but  the  pampered  and  incapable  English  settlers,  broken 
traders  and  insolvent  debtors,  complained  of  having  been 
seduced  to  Georgia  by  false  and  flattering  representations. 
They  grumbled  at  the  tenure  on  which  they  held  their 
lands,  and  the  trustees  so  far  modified  that  tenure  as  to 
allow  females  to  inherit,  and  the  tenants,  on  failure  of 
heirs,  to  dispose  of  their  farms  by  will.  They  alleged 
that  the  use  of  rum,  in  that  climate,  was  absolutely  es- 
sential to  health.  They  were  very  importunate  for  per- 
mission to  hold  slaves,  without  whose  labors,  they  insisted, 
lands  in  Georgia  could  not  be  cultivated.  The  Salzburg- 
ers  and  Highlanders,  laboring  men  themselves,  remon- 
strated against  slavery.  The  trustees  peremptorily  re- 
fused a  request  at  total  variance  with  the  design  for 
which  they  had  established  the  colony.  "Most  of  the 
early  settlers  were  altogether  unworthy  of  the  assistance 
they  received,"  so  says  Stevens,  a  recent  and  judicious 
native  historian  of  the  colony ,  who  has  Written  from  very  ^ 
full  materials.  "  They  were  disappointed  in  the  quali- 
ty and  fertility  of  their  lands;  were  unwilling  to  labor  ; 
hung  for  support  upon  the  trustees'  store ;  were  clamor- 
ous for  privileges  to  which  they  had  no  right ;  and  fo- 
mented discontent  and  faction  where  it, was  hoped  they 
would  live  together  in  brotherly  peace  and  charity." 
What  wonder  that  men  so  idle,  thriftless,  and  ungrate- 
ful called  loudly  for  slaves,  whose  unpaid  labors  might 
support  them  for  life  ? 

After  repeated  recommendations  from  the  Board  of 


372  IJISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    SPATES. 

/     CHAPTER  Trade,  the  boundary  dispute  between  Massachusetts  and 

XXIV. 

' '    New  Hampshire  had  been  referred  to  commissioners,  se- 
lected from  among  the  counselors  of  Nova  Scotia,  Rhode 
Island,  New  York,  and  New  Jersey.      This  commission, 
of  which  Philip  Livingston,  of  New  York,  was  president, 
1737. 'met  at  Hampton,  and,  after  hearing  both  parties,  fixed 
Aug-    the  western  boundary  of  Maine  as  it  now  runs — a  de- 

4  cision  very  much  in  accordance  with  the  claims  of  New 
Hampshire.  Upon  the  other  point  they  made  only  a  hy- 
pothetical decision,  dependent  on  the  question  whether 
the  new  charter  of  Massachusetts  intended  to  include 
all  the  territory  granted  by  the  old  one.  If  so,  they 

k  •  assigned  io  Massachusetts  the  Valley  of  the  Merrimac 
as  high  Up  as  the  inflow  of  Lake  Winnipisiogee,  whence 
the  .northern  boundary  was  to  be  drawn  due  west.  An 
appeal  was  taken  by  both  parties,  and  the  matter  was 
thus  carried  before  the  king  in  council,  by  whom,  so  far 
as  related  to  Maine,  the  decision  of  the  commissioners 
was  confirmed,  The  adroit  agents  of  New  Hampshire, 
that  "poor,  little,  loyal,  distressed  province,"  knew  well 
how  to  take  advantage  of  ministerial  prejudice  against 
the  "vast,  opulent,  overgrown"  colony  of  Massachusetts, 
whose  recent  conduct  in  the  disputes  with  Burnet  and 
Belcher  had  not  tended  to  propitiate  "  ministerial  good- 
will. Upon  the  other  point,  under  the  construction  given 

\  r  by  the  English  lawyers  to  the  old  charter  of  Massachu- 
setts, a  decision  was  made  which  gave  to  Ne\v  Hamp- 
1    shire  a  larger  territory  than  she.  ever  had  claimed. 

The  most  for  which  New  Hampshire  had  asked  was 
a  southern  boundary  running  due  west  from  a  point  three 
miles  north  of  the  mouth  of. the  Merrimac.  The  Privy 
Council  decided,  however,  that  this  due  west  line  should 
take  its  departure  from  a  point  three  miles  north  of  the 
southwesternmost  bend  of  that  river,  thus  giving  to  New 


PROGRESS   OF  THE  AMERICAN  COLONIES.      373 

Hampshire  twenty-eight  entire  townships,  and  parts  of  CHAPTER 
six  others  settled  under  grants  from  Massachusetts.  ' 

In  another  boundary  dispute  Massachusetts  met  with 
just  as  little  success.  The  country  conquered  from 
Philip  and  the  Wampanoags  was  claimed  by  Massa- 
chusetts as  within  the  old  Plymouth  patent.  This  was 
contested  by  Rhode  Island  ;  and  the  commissioners  to 
whom  the  question  was  referred  assigned  the  whole  tract  1741. 
to  that  colony,  which  thus,  at  length,  after  a  struggle  of 
a  hundred  years,  vindicated  its  existing  limits  against 
the  claims  of  its  stronger  neighbors. 

Since  the  accession  of  the  house  of  Hanover  the  pop- 
ulation of  the  British  North  American  colonies  had  doub- 
led. It  now  amounted  to  a  million,  including,  in  the 
middle  and  southern  colonies,  a  large  number  of  immi- 
grants from  countries  not  subject  to  the  British  crown. 
Different  courses  had  been  adopted  on  the  question  of  ad- 
mitting these  foreign-born  immigrants  to  the  rights  of 
citizenship.  By  act  of  Parliament,  a  uniform  system  1740. 
of  naturalization  was  established  on  the  basis  of  seven' ' 
years*  residence,  an  oath  of  allegiance,  and  profession  of 
"  the  Protestant  Christian  faith."  '?j#« 

Increased  consumption  and  production  rendered  the 
colonies  objects  of  increased  interest  to  the  merchants 
and  statesmen  of  Great  Britain.  After  a  tedious  infan- 
cy of  more  than  a  century,  they  had  reached  a  point  at 
which  their  progress  became  marked  and  rapid.  Few, 
however,  realized  the  geometrical  rate  of  that  progress, 
or  perceived  the  necessity  of  conciliating  by  favor,  or 
attaching  by  interest,  those  whom  rnere  authority  could 
not  much  longer  control. 


; 

fl%V& 


374  '    HISTORY   OF  /THE    UNITED    STATES. 


-CHAPTER    XXV. 

GREAT  BRITAIN  ATTACKS  THE  SPANISH  COLONIAL  SYS- 
TEM. THIRD  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  GREAT  REVIVAL. 
~  SLA  VERY  AND  THE  SLAVE  TRADE. 

JL  HE  policy  avowed  by  all  the  governments  of  Europe, 
•  of  rendering  their  colonies  planted  in  America  exclusive  - 

1737.  ly  subservient  to  tlfe  interests  of  the  parent  state,  was 
carried  out  by  Spain  with  special  rigor.  From  all  the 
.wide-spread  provinces  of  Spanish  America— through  the 
jealousy  of  the  mother  country  still  a  sort  of  unknown 
world— all  but  Spaniards  were  rigidly  excluded.  Even 
the  commerce  with  Spain  was  limited  to  the  single  port 
of  Cadiz,  and  burdened  with  restrictions,  which  raised 
the  price  of  European  merchandise  to  a  high  pitch,  and 
held  out  the  strongest  temptation  to  smugglers. 

The  assiento  enjoyed  under  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  by 
the  English  South  Sea  Company,  the  privilege,  that  is, 
pf  transporting  to  the  Spanish  colonies  a  certain  number 
6,f  slaves  annually- — a  departure  from  her  exclusive  pol- 
icy, forced  upon  Spain  by  the  inefficiency  of  her  own 
mercantile  marine—- was  made  a  cover  for  an  extensive 
smuggling  traoVon  the  part  of  the  English,  into  which 
private  merchants  also  entered.  This  traffic,  which 
united  dangerous  adventure  with  hopes  of  high  profit, 
absorbed  the  remnants  of  those  buccaneers  and  pirates 
by  whom  the  American  seas  had  so  long  been  infested. 
The  British  government,  in  their  zealous  encouragement 
of  this  irregular  trade,  seem  hardly  to  have  considered 


RELATIONS  WITH 'SPAIN.  375 

the  blow  they  were  striking  at  the  very  principles  on  CHAPTER 
which  their  own  colonial  policy  was  founded.  '  • 

To  guard  against  these  systematic  infractions  of  their  1737. 
laws,  the  Spaniards  maintained  a  numerous  fleet  of  ves- 
sels in  the  preventive  service,  known  as  guarda  costas, 
by  which  some  severities  were  occasionally  exercised  on 
suspected  or  detected  smugglers.  These  severities,  gross- 
lyj  exaggerated,  and  resounded  throughout  the  British 
dominions,  served  to  revive  in  England  and  the  colonies 
a  hatred  of  the  Spaniards,  which,  since  the  time  of  Philip 
II.,  had  never  wholly  died  out. 

Such  was  the  temper  and  position  of  the  two  nations 
when  the  colonization  of  Georgia  was  begun,  of  which 
one  avowed  object  was  to  erect  a  barrier  against  the 
Spaniards,  among  whom  the  runaway  slaves  of  South 
Carolina  were  accustomed  to  find  shelter,  receiving  in 
Florida  an  assignment  of  lands,  and  being  armed  and  or- 
ganized into  companies,  as  a  means  of  strengthening  that 
feeble  colony. 

A  message  sent  to  St.  Augustine  to  demand  the  sur-  1738. 
render  of  the  South  Carolina  runaways  met  with  a  point   .  Jan> 
blank  refusal,  and  the  feeling  against  the  Spaniards  ran 
very  high  in  consequence. 

The  South  Carolinians  ascribed  to  Spanish  influence, 
or,  at  least,  to  the  expectation  of  finding  a  refuge  in 
Florida,  an  insurrection  by  a  party  of  slaves,  who  armed 
themselves  by  plundering  a  warehouse,  and  marched 
through  the  country,  burning  several  houses,  and  killing 
some  twenty  colonists  before  they  could  be  suppressed. 

Oglethorpe  soon  returned  from  his  second  visit  to  En-    Sept. 
gland,  with  a  newly-enlisted  regiment  of  soldiers,  and 
the  appointment,  also,  of  military  commander  for  Geor- 
gia and  the  Carolinas,  with  orders  "  to  give  no  offense, 
but  to  repel  force  by  force." 


37.6  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

"'•'•  r       '  t''\»     -    ' 

CHAPTER       Both  in  Spain  and  England,  the  administrators  of  the 

xxv. 
government 'were   anxious   for   peace.      Commissioners, 

1739.  mutually  appointed,  signed  a  convention  to  settle  the 
Jan.     limits  of  Carolina  and  Florida,  and  to  arrange  the  other 

points  in  dispute.     But  this  proposed  arrangement  was 
'  scouted  as  unfavorable  to  England.     Peace  was  not  what 
the'  English  desired.      They  despised  the  Spaniards  as 
weak,  and  envied  them  as  rich.      The  hope  of  plunder — 
,  a  principal  motive  in  all  modern  English  wars — stimu- 
lated that  passion  for  fight,  always  strong  enough  in  Brit- 
ish bosoms.      The  ferocious  clamors  of  the  merchants 
and  the  mob  made  it  necessary  to  break  off  the  negotia- 
tion, and  absolutely  forced  Walpole  into  a  war. 

.Traveling  three  hundred  miles  through  the  forests, 

Aug.  21..  Oglethorpe  held  at  Coweta,  on  the  Chattahoochee,  just 

below  the  present  site  of  Columbus,  a  new  treaty  with 

the-  Creeks,  by  which  they  confirmed  their  former  ces- 

f  /•      '        '  •    • 

sions,  acknowledged  themselves  subject  to  the  King  of 
Great  Britain,  and  promised  to  exclude  from  their  ter- 
ritories all  but  English  settlers.  After  finishing  the 
'  treaty,  Oglethorpe  returned  through  the  woods  by  way 
of  Augusta  to  <  Savannah,  where  he  found  orders  from 
England  to  make  an  attack  on  Florida.  He  called  at 
once  on  South  Carolina  and  the  -Creeks  for  aid,  and  in 
Dec.  the  mean  time  made  an  expedition,  in  which  he  cap- 
tured the  Fort  of  Picolata,  over  against  St.  Augustine, 
thus  securing  the  navigation  of  the  St.  John's,  and  cut- 
ting off  the  Spaniards  from  their  forts  at  St.  Mark's  and 
Pensacola.  s 

1740.  South  Carolina  entered  very  eagerly  into  the  enter- 
prise.     Money  ^  was  voted;,  a  regiment >  five   hundred 
strong,. was  enlisted,  partly  in  North  Carolina  and  Vir- 

.  ginia.      This  addition  raised  Oglethorpe's  force  to  twelve 
.  hundred  men.      The  Indians  that  joined  him  were  as 


,  THIRD, INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  377 

many  more.     Having  marched  into  Florida,  he  took  a  CHAPTER 

small  fort  or  two,  and,  assisted  by  several  ships  of  war, 

laid  siege  to  St.  Augustine.     But  the  garrison  w&S'a-1740. 
thousand  strong,  besides  militia.     The  fortifications  prov-    ^?- 
ed  more  formidable  than  had  been  expected.      A- consid- 
erable loss  was  experienced  by  a  sortie  from  the  town, 
falling  heavily  on  the  Highland  Rangers.     Presently  the 
Indians  deserted,  followed  by  part  ''of  the  Carolina  regi-     July, 
rnent,  and  Oglethorpe  was  obliged  to  give  over  the  en- 
terprise. 

The  troops  were  hardly  returned  when  Charleston 
was  laid  in  ashes  by  an  accidental  fire,  the  damage  be- 
ing estimated  at  a  million  of  dollars.  The  British  gov- 
ernment, always  more  careful  of  the  southern  than  the 
northern  colonies,  voted  a  tenth  part  of  that  amount  for 
the  relief  of  the  sufferers.  From  the  time  of  this  re- 
pulse, the  good  feeling  of  the  Carolinians  toward  Ogle- 
thorpe came  to  an  end.  Many  of  the  disappointed 
Georgia  emigrants  had  removed  to  Charleston,  and  many 
calumnies  against  Oglethorpe  were  propagated,  and  em- 
bodied  in  a  pamphlet  published  there.  The  Moravians 
also  left  Georgia,  unwilling  to  violate  their  consciences 
by  bearing  arms.  Most  unfortunately  for  the  new  col- 
ony, the  Spanish  war  withdrew  the  Highlanders  and  oth- 
ers of  the  best  settlers  from  their  farms  to  convert  them 

~    '  •  •  r         •      -  i-.*<"  '' 

into  soldiers. 

Though  forced  into  the  war  against  his  inclination, 
Walpole  resolved  to  carry  it  on  with  spirit.  While  An-; 
son  sailed  for  the  Pacific  to  renew  the  enterprise  of 
Drake  by  ravaging  the  coasts  of  that  ocean,  a  great 
fleet  was  dispatched  to  the  West  Indies  to  re-enforce 
Vernon,  already  master  of  Porto  Bellq  and  Chagres, 
depots  on  the  Atlantic  side  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama 
for  all  the  merchandise  destined  for  the  Pacific.  This 


•  .  •          ••.  . 

378          HISTORY  op  THE  UNITED  STATE'S. 

/  '  **    v  . 

CHAPTER  fleet  "conveyed  an  army,  the  greatest  yet  seen  in  the 

West  Indies,  led  by  Cathcart,  under  whom,  as  second  in 

1 740.  command,  was  Spotswqod,  former  governor  of  Virginia. 
AH  the  North  American  colonies,  except  the  infant  set- 
tlement of  Georgia,  were  called  upon  to  aid,  and  all  fur- 
nished their  quotas  to  an  American  regiment  of  thirty-six 
hundred  men.  The  Assembly  of  Virginia,  to  furnish 
means,  raised  the  duty  on  slaves  imported  to  ten  per 
cent.  The  men  of  her  quota  were  levied  by  impress- 
ment from  among  "  the  able-bodied  persons  in  every 
county  who  follow  no  lawful  calling  or  employment." 
The  Quaker  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania  still  scrupled  to 
'.  vote  money  expressly  for  war ;  but,  on  the  strength  of 
former  precedents,  they  promised  £4000  for  the  king's 
'Use;  leaving  to  Governor  Thomas  the  responsibility  of  its 
application.  Thomas  obtained  recruits  among  the  in- 
dented servants,  many  of  whom  took  the  opportunity  to 
discharge  themselves  from  the  service  of  their  masters 
by  entering  into  that  of  the  king.  The  Assembly  re- 
monstrated ;  and  when  Thomas  refused  to  discharge  the 
enlisted  servants,  they  kept  back  the  £4000,  and  applied 
it  to  indemnify  the  masters,  leaving  Thomas  to  pay  the 
expense  of  his  enlistments  by  bills  on  England. 

A  very  warm  controversy  ensued  on  the  questions  of  a 
militia,  fortifications*  and  measures  of  defense.  The 
Quakers  were  less  than  a  third  part  of  the  population ; 
but  their  wealth  and  union  gave  them  control  of  the 
Assembly,  in  which  they  filled  most  of  the  seats.  They 
;  'Were  also  warmly  supported  by  the  Germans,  who  did 
not  favor  taxes,  and  were  little  disposed  to  serve  as  mili- 
tia-men. Thomas  was  sustained  by  the  Episcopalians, 
ttye'  Presbyterians,  the  merchant's  of  Philadelphia,  the 
proprietaries  who  had  renounced  Quakerism,  and  the 
Board  of  Trade.  Thomas's  dispatches,  containing  stric- 


*s^ 


THIRD   INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  379 

tures  on  the  non-resistant  policy  of  the  Assembly,  sur-  CHAPTER 
reptitiously  obtained  by  Partridge,  colonial  agent  in  Lon-  •  • 

don,   and  published  in  Philadelphia,  produced  there   a  1741, 
great  excitement. 

Philadelphia  was  now  a  city  of  twelve  thousand  inhab- 
itants, some  of  whom,  in  a  petition  to  the  Assembly,  very 
strongly  worded,  and  headed  by  the  mayor,  represented 
their  defenseless  situation,  and  demanded  protection.  This 
petition  was  pronounced  by  the  Assembly  "a -paper  ex- 
tremely presuming,  indecent,  insolent,  and  improper  to  be 
presented  to  this  House  ;"  and  in  "  drawing  in  so  many 
persons  to  be  partakers  with  him  therein,"  the  mayor  was 
pronounced  to  have  "  exceedingly  misbehaved  himself,, 
and  to  have  failed  greatly  in  the  duties  of  his  station!" 

The  doctrine  was  set  up  that  the  proprietaries  were 
bound  under  the  charter  themselves  to  provide  for  the 
defense  of  the  province,  for  which  purpose,  it  was  con- 
tended, the  quit-rents  and  other  .proprietary  revenue  had 
been  granted.     But  this  doctrine,  after  a  special  hearing  ' 
by  counsel,  was  emphatically  rejected  by  the  Board  of^  1742* 
Trade.      The  Assembly,  meanwhile,  to  demonstrate  their 
patriotism  and  their  readiness  to  share  in  the  burdens  of 
the  war,  voted  £3000,  to  be  appropriated  to  the  king's 
use.     From  this  time  forward  recommenced  a  warm  con- 
troversy between  the  proprietaries  on  the  one  side  and. 
the  Assembly  on  the  other,  scarcely  intermitted  so  long 
as  the  proprietary  system  lasted. 

The  call  upon  Massachusetts  to  aid  in  the  expedition  1740. 
of  Cathcart  and  Vernon  found  that  province,  as  usual, 
in  bitter  controversy  with  the  governor.  The  laws  au- 
thorizing the  existing  circulation  of  paper  would  all  ex- 
pire in  1741.  The  rapid  withdrawal  of  the  paper,  oper- 
ating like  a  bank  contraction  in  our  day,  but  with  more 
stringency,  ^produced  a  rapid  appreciation  of  the  curren- 


380  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  cyy  a  fall  of  prices,  and  a  severe  money  pressure.  But, 
.in  spite  of  all  attempts  to  starve  him  into  compliance, 
174K  Belcher  adhered  resolutely  to  his  instructions,  and  would 
agree  to  no  acts  extending  the  period  of  redemption,  or 
authorizing  new  issues.  Hence  the  revival  t)f  former 
schemes  for  joint-stock  banking.  Two  companies  were 
started ;  one,  known  as  the  "  Silver  Scheme,"  proposed 
to  issue  £150,000  in  notes,  redeemable  in \  silver  at 
the  end  of  fifteen  years ;  the  "  Manufactory  Scheme," 
or  "Land  Bank,",  undertook  to  circulate  double  that 
amount,  to  be  redeemed  at  the  end  of  twenty  years  in 
colonial  produce.  The  silver^scheme  was ,  patronized 
by  the  merchants,  and  traders,  the  Land  Bank  by  the 
farmers  and  mechanics.  Belcher  zealously  opposed  both  ; 
and  he  took ,  away  the  commission  of,  all  officers  of  the 
militia  and  justices  of  the  peace  who  had  any  thing  to 
<io  with  either*  In  spite,  however,  of  the  governor's 
proclamation,  notes  were  issued  by  both  companies,  and 
those  of  the  Land  Bank  especially  were  largely  pushed 
.  into  circulation.  That  company  had  eight  hundred  stock- 
holders, and  held  complete  control  over  the  House  of 
Representatives.  Belcher  even  apprehended  an  insur- 
rection to  compel  him  to  give  his  assent  to  the  scheme. 
His  opponents,  however,  served  their  end  more  effectu- 
ally by  plotting  his  removal,  and,  by  the  help  of  bare- 
faced and  unscrupulous  falsehoods,  presently  succeeded 
in  obtaining  it.  Thunderstruck  at  this  unexpected  blow, 
Belcher  hastened  to  England,  vindicated  his  conduct, 
and  obtained  the  promise  of  the  first  vacant  government 
in  America. 

The  operation  of  the  Massachusetts  banks  was  cut 
short  by  an  act  of  Parliament,  extending  to  the  colonies 
that  act  of  the  previous  reign  occasioned  by  the  South 
Sea  and  other  bubble  schemes,  which  prohibited  the  form- 


. 

BANKS  IN  MAS-SAjCHUSlfTTS.  .     ,  ^81 

ation  of  unincorporated  joint-stock  companies  with  more  CHAPTER 

than  six  partners.      This  act  was  denounced,  in  Massa-_ 

chusetts  as  an  interference  with  the  provincial  charter,  1741. 
and  in  South  Carolina  as  a  violation  of  provincial  rights. 
But  the  Massachusetts  companies  were  compelled  to  • 
wind  up ;  the  partners  were  held  individually  liable  for 
the  notes  ;  and  the  Manufactory  Scheme  especially,  j 
the  affairs  of  which  remained  unsettled  for  several  years, 
proved  very  ruinous  to  such  persons  concerned  in  it  as 
had  any  thing  to  lose-  Earnest  efforts  on  behalf  of  these 
unfortunate  speculators,  of  whom,  his  father  was  one, 
first  introduced  into  politics  Samuel  Adams,  afterward 
so  celebrated,  then  a  very  young  man,  a  recent  graduate 
at  Cambridge,  designed  for  the  ministry,  but  compelled 
by  his  father's  embarrassments  and  speedy  death  to-  turn 
his  attention  to  trade,  in  which,  however,,  he  had  but  lit- 
tle success.  At  his  graduation,  Adams  had  sustained,  as  ' 
a  thesis,  "  that  to  save  the  commonwealth  the  supreme 
power  might  lawfully  be  resisted."  His  position  as  well 
as  his  temperament  connected  him  with  the  party  in  op- 
position to  the  government.  His  time,  however,  was 
not  yet  come.  Some  twenty-five  years  hence  we  shall 
find  him  a  leading  spirit. 

William  Shirley,  Belcher's  successor  as  governor,  a 
man  of  prudence  and  sagacity,  an  English  lawyer,  whom 
an  eight  years'  residence  at  Boston  in  the  practice  ef  his 
profession  had  made  acquainted  with  the  temper  of  the 
people,  -attained  a  degree  of  popularity  unknown  to  gov- 
ernors of  Massachusetts .  since  the  days  of  Bellamont, 
The  breaking  out  of  the  war,  and  the  expenses  of  the 
troops  sent  to  the  West  Indies,  served  to  excuse  a  new 
issue  of  provincial  paper,  to  which,  in  spite  of  the  oppo- 
sition of  the  Board  of  Trade,  the  new  governor  obtained 
'permission  to  consent;  This  removed  one  ground  of  dis- 


v  382         HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES* 

CHAPTER  pute.     The  question  of  salary  was  'settled  by  a  tacit  un- 
derstanding that,  while  Shirley  continued  in  office,  the 
1741,.  General  Court  should  make  him  an  annual  allowance 
equivalent  to  £1000  sterling. 

New  Hampshire,  so  long  included  under  the  same 
commission  with  Massachusetts,  was  gratified  by  re- 
ceiving a  governor  of  "its  own — an  appointment  held  for 
the  next  twenty  years  by  Benning  Went  worth,  a  na- 
tive of  the  province,  son  of  the  former  lieutenant  gov- 
ernor. 

The  armament  under  Yernon  proved  signally  disas- 
trous.    While  the  •  -fleet,  with  twelve  thousand  soldiers 
on  boardr  was  blockading  the  city  of  Carthageiia,  the  yel- 
April.    low  fever,  that  scourge  of  West  Indian  warfare,  broke 
-out  with  great  fury.      Cathcart  and  Spots  wood  were  al- 
ready dead.  "  The  command  had  devolved  on  General 
Wentworth,  who  could  not  agree  with  Vernon.      After 
May  19.  several  Unsuccessful  attacks  on  the  city,  the  enterprise 

was  abandoned  with  immense  loss. 

July.  Vernon  subsequently  sailed  against  Cuba,  and  five 
hundred  additional  troops  were  sent  from  Massachusetts 
to  take  part  in  that  enterprise.  But  nothing  came  of  it. 
The  whole  expedition  turned  out  a  complete  failure. 
The  colonial  troops  had  been  condemned  to  the  hardest 
drudgery  of  the  service,  and  out  of  four  thousand  men 
'not  a  tenth  part  ever  returned. 

,  ,  Anson's  fleet  had  been  scattered  by  storms,  and  the 
hopes  of  plunder  in  the  Pacific  in  a  great  measure  dis- 
appointed. British  Commerce  was  itself  a  prey  to  pri- 
vateers. That  war,  into  which  British  cupidity  had  rush- 
ed so  headlong,  was  now  seen  to  •  be  -a  serious  matter. 
Other  clouds  also  lowered  in  the  horizon.  A  -new  war 
had  broken  out  in  Europe,  kindled  by  the  cupidity  of 
Frederic  of  Prussia,  who  sought  to  plunder  Maria  The- 


< 


•w  .  • 

THIRD  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  3$3 

resa  of  a  part  of  her  Austrian  dominions.     France  was  CHAPTER 

XXV. 

the  ally  of  Frederic.     To  support  Austria  against  France  - 
had  long  been  the  policy  of  'England.      France,  on  the  1742. 
other  hand,   inclined   to   assist  Spain.      War  between 
France  and  England  was  evidently  approaching.     What 
was  still  more  alarming,  a  fermentation  among  the  par- 
tisans   of  the    exiled   Stuarts,   especially   in    Scotland, 
threatened  even  a  domestic  war. 

Freed  from  the  terrors  which  Vernon's  fleet  had  in- 
spired, an  expedition  was  fitted  out  at  Havana  against 
Georgia  arid  Carolina.     Monteano,  the  Spanish  general, 
had  a  force  of  three  thousand  men  ;   but,  ignorant  of  the. 
coast  and  of  the  proper  objects  of  attack,  he  wasted  his 
time  among  the  inlets  on  the  Georgian  ooast.      By  help    June. 
of  an  artful  stratagem,  Oglethorpe,  with  a  much  inferior 
force,  repelled  an  attack  on  Frederica,  after  which,  the    July. 
Spaniards  embarked  and  returned  to  Cuba.     Charleston, 
meanwhile,  was  in  the  greatest  alarm.      Had  the  Span- 
ish general  known  his  business,  he  'would  have  sailed  di- 
rectly thither.      After  the   Spanish   fleet  had  retired,  a 
garrison  of  five  hundred  men  arrived,  sent  by  Vernon 
from  the  West  Indies. 

In  addition  to;  the  war  and  the  dread  of  negro  revolt, 
quit-rents  and  crowix  lands  constituted  in  South  Caro- 
lina leading  topics  of  political  interest.     An  agent  sent 
from  England  to  investigate  this  subject  was  thwarted,  1741. 
foiled,  and  defeated  by  Lieutenant-governor  Bull  and  the 
council,  stimulated,  as-  the  Board  of  Trade  suspected,  by          , 
letters  from  James  Glen,  a  South  Carolina  proprietor, 
appointed  governor,  but  who  delayed  his  departure  for 
several  years.      When  at  length  he  arrived,  Glen  was  1743. 
received  with  favor  as  one  who  had  watched  over  the     Dec- 
rights  jof  the  province.     The  Board  of  Trade  accused 
him  of  disregarding  his  instructions,  and  frequent  be- 


384  HISTORY  QF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

*  '        '        '.'"". 

CHAPTER  tray al  of  the  rights  of  the  crown.     He  found  occasion  to 
complain,  in  his  turn,  of  the  encroachments  of  the  coun- 
1743.  cil  and  the1  ."leveling  principles"  of  the  Assembly. 

,  Glen  cultivated  with  care  the  friendship  of  the  Cher- 
okees,  the  Creeks,  and  the  more  distant  Choctaws  ;  and, 
at  his  -earnest  request,  as  a  further  security  against 
Spanish  invasion  and  negro  revolt,  with  rumors  of  which 
the  province  WAS  constantly  disturbed,  the  English  gov- 
e.rnment  conceded  two  additional  independent  companies 
in  the  pay  of  the  crown.  •«  These  three  independent  com- 
panies in  South  Carolina,  and  the  four  in  New  York, 
constituted, . at  this  time;  the  British  standing  army  in 
North  America. 

Charges  were  made  against  some  of  the  Charleston 
•  merchants  of  an  illicit  trade  carried  on  with  the  Span- 
~  iards.     As  there  was  no  court  in  the  province  which 
had  jurisdiction  of.  offenses  committed  out  of  its  limits, 
,  several  persons  indicted  for  this  offense  were  sent  to.  En- 
gland for  trial. 

While  Oglethor^e  was  engaged  in  repelling  the  Span- 
iards, the  trustees  of  Georgia  had 'been  fiercely  assailed 
by  their  discontented  colonists.    They  sent  Thomas  Stev- 
l ;.-«.  ens  to.  England  with  a  petition  containing  many  charges 

of  mismanagement,    extravagance,    and',  peculation,    to 
which  the  trustees- put  in  an  answer.     After  a  thorough 
•  examination  of  documents  and  witnesses  in  committee  of 
the  whole,  and  hearing  counsel,  the  House  of  Commons 
resolved  that  "the  petition  of  Thomas  Stevens  contains 
false,  scandalqus,  and  malicious  charges ;"  in  consequence 
1742  'of  which,  Stevens,  the  next  day,  was  brought  to  the  bar, 
June  29.  and.  reprimanded  on  hi^  knees.  .  Yet  he  was  not  wholly 
unsuccessful,  for  it  was  part  ..of  the  same  resolves  "that 
it  will  be-  an  advantage  to  the  colony  of  Georgia  to  per^ 
mit  the  importation  of  rum  ;"-  in  consequence  of  which, 


OGLETHORPE 'LEAVES  GEORGIA.  385 

the  trustees  felt  obliged  to  repeal  their  prohibitory  law.  CHAPTER 
A  strong  effort  in  the  House  to  sanction  also  the  impor-          • 
tation  of  negroes  was  defeated  by  a  majority  of  nine. 

Oglethorpe  himself  had  been  a  special  mark  of  the 
malice  and  obloquy  of  the  discontented  settlers.  Besides 
troubles  and  apprehensions  from  papist  spies  and  muti- 
neers, there  had  been  much  dispute  and  many  duels  in 
his  regiment.  Presently  his  lieutenant  colonel,  a  man 
who  owed  every  thing  to  Oglethorpe's  favor,  re-echoing 
the  slanders  of  the  colonists,  lodged  formal  charges  1743. 
against  him.  Oglethorpe  proceeded  to  England  to  vin- 
dicate his  character,  and  the  accuser,  convicted  by  a 
court  of  inquiry  of  falsehood,  was  disgraced  and  de- 
prived of  his  commission.  Appointed  a  major  general,  1744,. 
ordered  to  join  the  army  assembled  to  oppose  the  land- 
ing of  the  .Pretender,  marrying  also  about  this  time, 
Oglethorpe  did  not  again  return  to  Georgia.  The  for- 
mer scheme  of  administration  having  given  rise  to  innu- 
merable complaints,  the  government  of  that  colony  was 
intrusted  to  a  president  and  four  counselors.  The  presi-  1743, 
dent  was  William  Stevens,  father  of  the  late  agent  of  the  May- 
colonists,  a  graduate  of  Cambridge,  and  for  many  years 
a  member  of  Parliament,  but  whose  great  age,  upward 
of  seventy,  was  a  serious  disqualification.  He  was  a 
faithful  servant,  however,  of  the  trustees,  in  whose  em- 
ployment he  had  acted  as  colonial  secretary  since  the  first 
planting  of  Savannah. 

Cotemporaneously  with  the  breaking  out  of  the  Span- 
ish war  there  occurred  in  America  a  remarkable  religious 
excitement,  known  in  our  ecclesiastical  annals  as  the 
"  Great  Revival."     Wesley's  visit  to  Georgia  and  re- 
turn have  been  already  mentioned.      As  he  landed  in 
England,  he  encountered,  just  embarking  for  Georgia,  his  1738. 
friend  and.'  coadjutor,  George  Whitfield,  hardly  less  fa-     Jan 
II.— B  B 


386  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  -mous  than  himself  in  religious  annals.    On  behalf  of  the 
xxv. 

children  in  Georgia  left  destitute'  by  the  .death  of  their 

1738.  parents,  victims  to  the  climate,  or  to  ignorance  and  im- 
prudence, Whitfield  had  resolved  to   found   an  orphan 
house,  and  to  collect  money  for  that  purpose  he  under- 
took a  religious  tour  through  England  and  the  colonies. 

1739.  The  vivid  imagination  and  pathetic  eloquence  of  .this 
young  and  enthusiastic  preacher  attracted  crowds  of  hear- 
ers wherever  he  went,  and  resuscitated  and  gave  new 
vitality  to  old  religious  ideas,  for  some  time  >past  very 
much  on  the  wane.      Having  collected  money  both  in 

174Q.  England  and  America,  the  orphan  house  was  founded 
March,   about  nine  miles  from  Savannah,  and  placed  under  the 
charge  of  James  Habersham,  who  had  accompanied  Whit- 
field  to  Georgia  as  religious  companion  and  disciple.     To 
,  collect  additional  funds  for  its  support,  Whitfield  revisit- 
ed  the  northern  colonies.. 

Already  a  religious  reaction  had  commenced  in  New 
England,  headed  by  Jonathan  Edwards,  whose  treatises 
on  religious  metaphysics  are  still  read  and  admired. 
Edwards  had  settled  at  Northampton  as  colleague  to  his 
grandfather,  the  latitudinarian  Stoddard ;  but,  after  Stod- 
dard's  death,  he  had  repudiated  the  system  of  the  half-way 
covenant,  and  had  put  himself  forward  as  the  champion 
of,  the  old  dogmas  of  the  sole  right  of  the  sanctified  to 
enjoy  the -privileges  of  church  members,  and  of  salvation 
by  faith  alone.  Whitfield  held  similar  .views,  differing 
somewhat  in  that  respect  from  Wesley,  who  inclined  to 
ascribe  a  certain  efficacy  to  works,  or,  at  least,  to  worship. 
After  preaching  with  great  success  through  the  south- 
Sept,  ern  and  middle  colonies,  Whitfield  was  invited  to  New 
England,  where  excitement  rose  to  a  high  pitch.  The 
revivalists,  in  many  places,  ran  into  great  extravagances, 
evincing  their  emotions  by  outcries,  coritortions,  and  bod- 


GR^AT  REVIVAL.  337 

ily  exercises,  regarded  by  many  as  visible  evidence  of  CHAPTER 
the.  workings  of  divine  grace.  They  also  took  upon  .•»  '  - 
themselves  that  tone  of  superiority  and  castigation,  so  1740. 
characteristic  of  reformers',  but  very  unpalatable  to  those 
who  hitherto  had  possessed  the  high  places  in  the  church. 
The  ministers  were  especially  alarmed  at  the  invasion 
of  their  vested  rights  by  volunteer  preachers  in  other 
men's  parishes,  especially  lay  exhorters  and  itinerants. 
The  Congregational  Establishment  of  New  England  was 
soon  shaken  by  a  violent  internal  controversy  between 
the  revivalists,  called  "  New  Lights,"  and  the'  "  Old 
Lights,"  among  whom  the  Latitudinarians  ranged  them- 
selves, as  opposers  of  this  new  scheme 'of  religicus  agita- 
tion. Chauncy,  a  man  of  no  mean  ability /successor 
of  Wilson,  Cotton,  Norton,  and  Davenport,  in  the  First 
Church  of  Boston,  and  the  head  of  the  Latitudinarian 
party,  in  his  "  Seasonable  Thoughts  on  the  State  of  Re-  1743. 
ligion  in  New  England,"  gives  but  a  dark  picture  of  the 
disorders,  uncharitableness,  and  indecorums  resulting  from 
the  labors  of  the  New  Lights.  Nor  could  he  discern 
among  these  objectionable  results  any  of  those  "fruits  of 
holiness"  which  he  esteemed  the  essential  part  of  religion. 
On  the  other  hand,  fifty -nine  Massachusetts  ministers, 
confessing,  indeed,  to  some  extravagances,  expressed  their 
satisfaction,  nevertheless^  at  "  a  happy  and  remarkable 
revival  of  religion  in  many  parts  of  the  land,  through  an 
uncommon  divine  influence."  Edwards  had  already 
taken  the  same  ground  in  his  "  Thoughts  on  the  Re- 
vival of  Religion." 

This  controversy  raged  with  special  violence  in  Con- 
necticut, where  Jonathan  Law,  governor  from  1741  to 
1751,  was  very  active  against  the  revivalists.  By  way 
of  clog  on  the  activity  of  those  who  had  espoused  the 
New  Light  side,  it  was  enacted,  that  all  settled  minis- 


388  HISTORY    OF   THE   UJflTE-D  STATES. 

CHAPTER  ters  of  the  colony  who  should  preach  in  any  parish  not 
.         their  own,  without  express  invitation,  should  lose  all  le- 

1742.  gal  remedy  in  their  own  parishes  for  the  recovery  of  their 
salaries ;  and  if  they  came  from  other  colonies,  should 
be  arrested  and  sent  away  as  "  vagrants."     A  law  had 
been  enacted,  in  the,  terms  of  King  William's  Toleration 
Act,  allowing  to  Episcopalians  and  other   "  sober  Dis- 
senters" the  right  to  set  up  their  own  places  of  worship. 
But  when  the  New  Lights  began  to  avail  themselves  of 

1743.  this  law  to  establish  separate  societies,  this  provision  was 
declared  not  to  apply  to  Congregationalists  or  Presbyte- 
rians.    After  a  virulent  controversy  for  nine  or  ten  years, 

1750.  in  a  new  edition  of  the  Connecticut  laws  the  acts  aimed 
at  the  New  Lights  were  silently  dropped  without  any 
formal  repeal. 

During  these  religious  excitements,  the  Baptists  of 
New  England  received  a  new  impulse.  That  sect,  hith- 
erto very  limited  in  number,  began  now  to  increase,  and 
a  large  number  of  the  separatist  New  Light  congrega- 
tions presently  adopted  Baptist  views. 

.  In  the  middle  and  southern  colonies,  the  Presbyterians 
from  Scotland  and  the  north  of  Ireland,  kindled  by  Whit- 
fielcl's  preaching  into  new  zeal,  and  constantly  recruited 
by  additional  immigrants,  began  to  grow  up  into  formi- 
dable rivals  to  the  Episcopal  Church.  It  was  in  vain 
that  the  governor  and  council  of  Virginia  put  in  force 
against  the  new  religionists  the  remnants  of  the  old  per- 
secuting laws.  Anti-Episcopal  ideas  spread  widely; 
and  a  scheme,  presently  broached  in  England  for  the  ap- 
pointment of  colonial  bishops,  was  vigorously  opposed,  and 
came  to  nothing. 

Whitfield  visited  the  colonies  at  intervals  till  his  death 
in  1770.  We  must  date  from  this  era,  though  not  fully 
carried  out  till  a  much  more  recent  period,  that  organized 


GREAT  REVIVAL— INDIAN  MISSIONS.  339 

system  of  revivals  and  religious  excitements,  pushed,  at  CHAPTER 
times,  to  a  very  high  pitch,  and  not  without  important       " 
results,  still  in  progress  of  development,  upon  the  moral  1740. 
and  intellectual  character  of  our  people. 

Among  the  fruits  of  this  religious  revival  were  new 
attempts  at  the  instruction  and  conversion  of  the  Indians. 
David  Brainerd,  one  of  the  New  Lights,  expelled  from 
Yale  College  for  having  spoken  of  a  tutor  as  "  destitute 
of  religion,"  devoted  himself  to  this  service,  first  among  17.42. 
the  Indians  on  the  frontiers  of  Massachusetts  and  New 
York,  and  then  among  the  Delawares  of  New  Jersey. 
Moravian  missionaries  made  some  converts  among  the 
Indians  of  Connecticut  and  New  York.  '  Expelled  from 
those  provinces  by  the  hostile  jealousy  of  the  inhabitants, 
who  stigmatized  them  as  papists,  they  found  refuge  with 
their  converts  in  Pennsylvania,  and  established  them-  1748. 
selves  at  Gnadenhutten,  on  the  Lehigh,  whence  their  in- 
fluence spread  among  the  neighboring  tribes  of  the  Del- 
awares. ,  Edwards,  subsequently  to  his  dismissal  from 
Northampton,  which  place,  after  long  and  sharp  contests 
with  his  parishioners,  he  was  obliged  to  leave  by  reason  1750. 
of  his  unpopular  attempts  to  enforce  church  discipline, 
became  preacher  to  the  Housatonic  Indians  at  Stock- 
bridge.  Eleazer  Wheelock,  minister  of  Lebanon,  in  Con-  1754. 
necticut,  one  of  the  most  zealous  -of  the  •  New  Lights, 
presently  established  in  that  town  an  Indian  missionary 
school.  That  school,  removed  afterward  into  New  Hamp- 
shire, became  ultimately  Dartmouth  College. 

Henry  Melchior  Muhlenburg,  from  Hanover,  in  Ger-, 
many,  who  arrived  at  Philadelphia  shortly  after  Whit- 
field's  second  visit,  and  settled  over  a  German  Lutheran  1742. 
congregation  in  that  city,  to  which  he  ministered  for  for- 
ty-five years*  may  be  justly  considered  as  the  corner-stone 
of  the  German  Lutheran  Church  in  America. 


390  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  ' .  A  religious  revival,  oL  which  Wesley  and  Whit  field 
-  were  the  chief  apostles,  commenced  about  the  same  time 
1742.  in  the  mother  country;  Besides  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church  founded  by  Wesley,  the  decayed  and  feeble 
congregations  of  the  Baptists  and  Independents  received 
new  life,  and  presently  came  forward  to  fill  that  place 
as  a  dissenting  body  formerly  occupied  by  the  Presby- 
terian Nonconformists,  most  of  whose  congregations  had 
'  dwindled  away  or  lapsed  into  Unitarianism.  Even  the 
Church  of  England  felt  the  impulse.  The  Low  Church 
party  was  •  arrested  in  its  Latitudinarian,  career,  to  be 
gradually  brought  back  to  what  was  presently  called 
"  evangelical"  ground.  A  similar  process  took  place  also 
in  the  established  Church  of  Scotland.  Wesley  and 
Whitfield  must  be  reckoned  the  chief  apostles  of  that 
modified  system  of  Puritanism  which,  under  the  names 
first  of  "'Methodism"  and  then  of  "  evangelical  religion," 
has  exerted  so  notable  an  influence  over  the  English  race 
in  both  hemispheres.  But  these  changes,  both  in  Brit- 
ain and  America,  were  the  work  of  time;  a  long  period 
was  yet  to  elapse  before  the  -predominance  of  evangelical 
views  became  fully  established. 

It  was  one  consequence  of  the,  check  to  Latitudina- 
rian  ideas,  growing  out  of  this  religious  revival,  greatly 
to  diminish  in  the  public  estimate  that  high  importance 
ascribed  to  learning  by  the  Puritan  founders  of  New  En- 
gland. This  triumph,  however,  of  faith  over  learning  was 
more  apparent  than  real.  As  the  necessity  of  education 
to  qualify  men  to  be  teachers  of  religion  and  morals  di- 
minished in  the  popular  view,  reason  and  learning,  not 
needed  in  the  pulpit,  found  other  avenues  to  the  public 
mind. 

Notwithstanding  all  the  efforts  and  remarkable  suc- 
cess of  the  •  revivalists,  from  that  day  to  this  religion 'has 


BLOODY  DELUSION  IN  NEW  YORK.      391 

gone  on  declining  in  political  and  historical  importance.  CHAPTER 

The  modern  doctrines  of  .religious  freedom  and  free  in- __ 

quiry  have  constantly  gained  ground,  throwing  more  and  1742. 
more  into  the  shade  that  old  idea,  acted  upon  with  spe- 
cial energy  by  the  Puritan  colonists  of  New  England — 
deep  traces  of  which  are  also  .to  be  found  in  every  North 
American  code — the  theocratic  idea  of  a  Christian  com- 
monwealth, in  which  every  other  interest  must  be  made 
subservient  to  unity  of  faith  and  worship,  the  state  being 
held  responsible  to  God  for  the  salvation  of  the  souls  in- 
trusted to  its  charge. 

Abandoning  a  thought  which  for  centuries  had  daz- 
zled the  imagination  of  -Christendom,  giving  rise  to  a 
thousand  heroitf  efforts,  but  the  impracticability  of  which 
was  now  becoming  apparent,  the  revivalists  fell  back  on 
the  notion  of  individual  salvation.  Adopting  a  quie- 
tistic  theory,  leaving  politics  to  worldly  men  or  the  prov- 
idence of  God,  it  became  their  prominent  idea  not  to 
save  the  commonwealth,  Jbut  to  save,  themselves.  Re- 
ligion, so  conspicuous  hitherto  as  the  glowing,  sometimes 
lurid,  atmosphere  of  our  historical  picture,  fades  hence- 
forth, almost  vanishes  away. 

While  Vernon's  expedition  still  occupied  the  hopes  1741. 
and  fears  of  the  colonists,  the  city  of  New  York  be- 
came the  scene  of  a  cruel  and  bloody  delusion,,  less  .no- 
torious, but  not  less  lamentable  than  the  Salem  witch- 
craft. That  city  now  contained  some  seven  or  'eight 
thousand  inhabitants,  of  whom  twelve  or  .fifteen  hund- 
red were  slaves.  Nine  fires  in  rapid  succession,  most  of  April. 
them,  however,,  m'erely  the  burning  of  chimneys,  produced 
a  perfect  insanity  of  terror.  An  indented  servant  wom- 
an purchased  her  liberty  and  secured  a  reward  of  £100 
by  pretending  to  give  information  of  a  plot  formed  by  a 
low  tavern-keeper,  her  master,  ^and  three  negroes  to  burn 


392  HISTORY    OF    THE    U'NITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  city  and  murder  the  whites.      This  story  was  con- 

XXV. 

firmed  and  amplified  by  an  Irish  prostitute  convicted  of  a 
1741.  robbery,  who,  to  recommend  herself  to  mercy,  reluctantly 
turned  informer.  Numerous  arrests  had  been  already 
thade  among  the  slaves  and  free  blacks.  Many  others 
followed.  The  eight  lawyers  who  then  composed  the  bar 
of  New  York  all  assisted  by  turns  on  behalf  of  the  pros- 
ecution. The  prisoners,  who  had  no  counsel,  were  tried 
and  convicted  upon  most  insufficient  evidence.  The  law- 
yers vied  with  each  other  in  heaping  all  sorts  of  abuse  on 
their  heads,  and  Chief-justice  Delancey,  in  passing  sen- 
tence, vied  with  the  lawyers.  Many  confessed  to  save 
their  lives,  and  then-  accused  others.  Thirteen  unhappy 
convicts  were- frurned  at  the  stake,  eighteen  were  hanged, 
and  seventy-one1  transported. 

The  war  and  the  religious  excitement  then  prevailing 
tended  to  inflame  the  yet  hot  prejudices  against  Cath- 
olics. A  non-juring  schoolmaster,,  accused  of  being  a 
Catholic  priest  in  disguise,  and  of  stimulating  the  negroes 
to  bum  the  city  by  promises  of  absolution,  was  condemned 
Aug.  29.  and  executed.  Glutted  with  blood  and  their,  fright  ap- 
peased, the  citizens  began,  at  last  to  recover  their  senses. 
The  informers  lost ,  their  credit,  and  a  stop  wa$  put  to 
these  judicial  murders. 

Sept.  In  a  last  effort  "  to  recall, the.  delegates  of  New  York 
to  their  duty,"  Clarke,  the  lieutenant  governor,  addressed 
the  Assembly  in  an  historical  discourse,  in  which  he 
traced  the  progress  of  their  encroachments;  how  they 
had  begun  by  demanding  a  treasurer  of  their  own,  first 
for  extraordinary  grants,  and  then  for  the  ordinary  reve- 
nue; how  they  next  had  refused  to  vote  money  in,  a  lump, 
and  substituted  special  appropriations  for  particular  ob- 
jects, "  subverting  the  Constitution",  by  assuming  to  "fix 
the  salaries  of  all  officer's,  who  were  thus  made  depend- 


CLARKE  AND  CLINTON  IN  NEW  YORK.    393 

ent,  not  on  the  crown,  but  on  the  Assembly ;  and  how,  CHAPTER 
finally,  they  had  declined  to  vote  any  taxes  at  all,  except  - 
from  year  to  year.  He  concluded  by  pressing  the' grant  1741. 
of  a  standing  revenue  as  the  only  means  of  removing  a 
jealousy  which  for  some  years  had  obtained  in  En- 
gland, "  that  the  plantations  are  not  without  thoughts  of 
throwing  off  their  dependence."  The  Assembly,  in  an 
historical  reply,  showed  sby-what  misappropriations  of 
money  and  other  official  abuses  they  had  been  gradually 
driven  into  their  present  position.  As  to  independence, 
they  took  it  upon  themselves  to  vouch  that  not  one  per- 
son in  the  province  had  any  such  thought  or  desire,  "  for 
under  what  government  can  we  be  better  protected,  or 
our  liberties  so  well  secured  ?"  Clarke  probably  meant 
by  "  independence,"  as  did  others  by  whom  the  word 
was  used,  not  formal  separation  from  the  mother  coun- 
try, but  uncontrolled  regulation  of  local  affairs.  Unsup- 
ported by  Newcastle,  to  whom  he  applied,  after  a  vain 
struggle,  Clarke  yielded  to  necessity,  and  accepted  such 
conditional  and  temporary  grants  as  the  Assembly  chose 
to  make. 

The  same  policy  was  adopted  by  Clarke's  successor,  1743. 
George  Clinton,  an  admiral  in  the  navy,  a  younger  son 
of  the  Earl  of  Lmcoln-r-that  same  family  so  intimately 
connected  with  the  early  settlement  of  Massachusetts^ — 
and  father,  also,  of  a  future  commander-in-chief  of  the 
British  armies  in  America.  Shortly  after  Clinton's  ar- 
rival, the  Assembly  passed  an  act  limiting  its  own  exist- 
ence and  that  of  future  Assemblies  to  seven  years.  The 
Triennial  Act  formerly  passed  had  been  rejected  in  En- 
gland ;  but,  as  this  septennial  act  was  founded  on  par- 
liamentary precedent,  its  approval  could  not  well  be  re- 
fused. As  the  impending  war  with  France  might  lead 
to  invasion  from  Canada,  the  Assembly  voted  money  to~ 


39.4  HISTORY'OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  fortify  Albany  and  Oswego.     Delancey  at  first  had  the 

_^ 1_  leading  influence  with  Clinton,  but  a  quarrel  springing 

1743.  up  between  him  and  the  governor,  his  place  as  chief  ad- 
viser was  filled  by  Golden.  This  drove  Delanoey  into 
a  course  of  popular  opposition,  for  which  he  had  remark- 
able talents. 

The  Six  Nations  still  f etaiiied  the  right  to  traverse 
the  great,  valley  west  of  the  Blue  Ridge.  Just  at  this 
inopportune  moment,  some  of  their  parties  came  into 
bloody  collision  with  the  back  woodsmen  of  Virginia,  who 
had  penetrated  into  'that  valley.  Hostilities  with  the 
Six  Nations,  now  that  war  was  threatened  with  France, 
might  prove  very  dangerous;  and  Clinton  hastened  to 
secure  the  friendship  of  these  ancient  allies  by  liberal 
presents;  for  which  purpose,  in  conjunction  with  corn- 
June,  missioners  from  New  England,  he  held  a  treaty  at  Alba- 
ny.. The  commissioners  assembled  on  this  occasion  pro- 
posed to  Clinton  an  association  of  the  five  northern  colo- 
nies for  mutual  defense.  But  the 'New  York  Assembly, 
in  hopes  .to  secure  the  same  neutrality  enjoyed  during 
the  previous  war,  declined  this  proposal.  The  difficulties 
between  Virginia  and  the  Six  Nations  were  soon  after 
July,  settled  in  a  treaty,  held  at  Lancaster,  to  which  Pennsyl- 
vania and'  Maryland  were  also  parties,  and  in  which,  in 
consideration  of  ,d£400,  the  Six  Nations  relinquished  all 
their  title  to  the  valley  between  the  Slue  Ridge  and  the 
central  chain  of  the  Allegany  Mountains. 

While  the  western  frontier  was  thus  secured,  New 
England  received  intimation  of  the -breaking  out  of  the 
expected  war  with  France,  in  an  expedition  which  crossed 
May  24.  over  from  Cape  Breton,  broke  up  the  fishery,  and  attack- 
ed arid  captured  Fort  Canso,  at  the  northeastern  extrem- 
ity of  the  Nova  Scotian  peninsula.  Annapolis  was  twice 
besieged  by  a  body  of  Indians  and  Canadians,  headed,  it 


THIRD    INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  395 

said,  by  a  priest,  but  was  relieved  by  assistance  sent  CHAPTER 

from  Massachusetts.    Privateers,  issuing  from  Louisburg, L. 

proved  a  great  annoyance  to  New  England  commerQe,  and  1744. 
threatened  the  entire  destruction  of  the  fisheries.      The 
Eastern  Indians  commenced  also  their  fifth  war  on  the 
frontiers  of  Maine. 

Louisburg,  on  which  the  French  had  spent, much  mon- 
ey, was  by  far  the  strongest  fort  north  of  the  Gulf  of  Mex- 
ico. But  the  prisoners  of  Canso,  carried  thither,  and  aft- 
erward dismissed  on  parole,  reported  the  garrison  to  be 
weak,  and  the  works  out  of  repair.  So  long  as  the 
French  held  this  fortress,  it  was  sure  to  be  a  source  of 
annoyance  to  New  England,  but  to  wait  for  British  aid 
to  capture  it  would  be  tedious  and  uncertain,  public  at- 
tention in  Great  Britain  being  much  engrossed  by  a 
threatened  invasion.  Under  these  circumstances,  Shir- 
ley proposed  to  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  the 
bold  enterprise  of  a  colonial  expedition,  of  which  Louis- 
burg should  be  the  object.  After  six.  days'  deliberation 
and  two  additional  messages  from  the  governor,  this  pro-  1745. 
posal  was  adopted  by  a  majority  of  one  vote.  A  circular  Jan<  25' 
letter,  asking  aid  and  co-operation,  was  '  sent  to  all  the 
colonies  as  faf  south  as  Pennsylvania.  In  answer  to 
this  application,  urged  by  a  special  messenger  frorn  Mas- 
sachusetts, the  Pennsylvania  Assembly,  still  engaged  in 
a  warm  controversy  with  Governor  Thomas,  voted  £4000 
of  their  currency  to  purchase  provisions.  The  New  Jer- 
sey Assembly,  engaged,  like  that  of  Pennsylvania,  in  a 
violent  quarrel  with  their  governor,  had  refused  to  organ- 
ize, the  militia  or  to  vote  supplies  unless  Morris  would 
first  consent  to  all  their  measures,  including  a  new  is- 
sue of  paper  money.  They  furnished,  however,  £2000 
toward  the  Louisburg  expedition,  but  declined  to,faise 
any  men.  The  New  York  Assembly,  after  a  long  de- 


396  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


CHAPTER  bate,  voted  d£3000- of  their  currency;  but  this  seemed 

XXV 

_: l_to  Clinton  a  niggardly  grant,  and  he  sent,  besides,  a 

1745.  quantity  of  provisions  purchased  by  private  subscription, 
and  ten  eigh teen-pounders  from  the  king's  magazine. 
Connecticut  voted  five  hundred  men,  led  by  Roger  Wol- 
cott,  afterward  governor,  and  appointed,  by  stipulation 
of  the  Connecticut  Assembly,  second  in  command  of  the 
expedition.  Ithode  Island  and  New  Hampshire  each 
raised  a  regiment  of  three  hundred  men  ;  but  the  Rhode 
Island  troops  did  not  arrive  till  after  Louisburg  was  tak- 
en. The  chief  burden  of  the  enterprise,  as  was  to  be 
.xpeeted,  fell  on  Massachusetts.  In  seven  weeks  an 
•  army  of  .three  thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty  men  was 
enlisted,  transports  were  pressed,  and  bills  of  credit  were 
profusely  issued  to  pay  the  expense.  Ten  armed  ves- 
sels .were  provided  by  Massachusetts,  and  one  by  each 
of  the  other  New  England  colonies.  The  command  in 
chief  was  given  to  William  Pepperell,  a  native  of  Maine, 
a  wealthy  merchant,  who  had  inherited  and  augmented 
a  large  fortune  acquired  by  his  father  in  the  fisheries  ;  a- 
popular,  enterprising,  sagacious  man,  noted  for  his  uni- 
versal good  fortune,  but  unacquainted  with  military  af- 
fairs, except  as  a  militia  officer.  Whitfield,  then  preach- 
ing on  his  third  tour  throughout  the  colonies,  gave  his 
influence  in  favor  of  the  expedition  by  suggesting,  as  a 
motto  for  the  flag  of  the  New  Hampshire  regiment, 
"Nil  desperandum  Christo  duce" — " Nothing  is  to  be 
despaired  of  with  Christ  for  a  leader."  The  enterprise, 
under  such  auspices,  assumed  something  of  the  charac- 
ter of  an  anti-Catholic  crusade.  One  of  the  chaplains,  a 
disciple  of  Whitfield,  carried  a  hatchet,  specially  provided 
to  hew  down  the  images  in  the  French  churches. 
April  4.  Eleven  days  after  embarking  at  Boston,  the  Massa- 
chusetts armament  assembled  at  Casco,  to  wait  there 


THIRD    INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  397 

the  arrival  of  the  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  quotas,  CHAPTER 

xxv. 
and  the  melting  of  the  ice  by  which  Cape  Breton  was ,_ 


environed.  The  New  ^Hampshire  troops  were  already  1745. 
there ;  those  from  Connecticut  came  a  few  days  after. . 
Notice  having  been  sent  to  England  and  the  West  In- 
dies of  the  intended  expedition,  Captain  Warren  pres- 
ently arrived  with  four  ships  of  war,  and,  cruising  before  April  23. 
Louisburg,  captured  several  vessels  bound  thither  with 
supplies.  Already,  before  his  arrival,  the  New  England 
cruisers  had  prevented  the  entry  of  a  French  thirty -gun 
ship.  As  soon  as  the  ice  permitted,  the  troops  landed  April  30. 
and  commenced  the  siege,  but  not  with  much  skill,  for 
they  had  no  engineers.  The  artillery  was  commanded 
by  Gridley,  who  served  thirty  years  after  in  the  same 
capacity  in  the  first  Massachusetts  revolutionary  army.. 
Cannon  and  provisions  had  to  be  drawn  on  sledges  by 
human  strength  over  morasses  and  rocky  hills.  Five 
unsuccessful  attacks  were  made,  one  after  another,  upon 
an  island  battery  which  protected  the  harbor.  In  that 
cold,  foggy  climate,  the  troops,  very  imperfectly  provided 
with  tents,  suffered  severely  from  sickness,  and  more  than 
a  third  were  unfit  for  duty.  But  the  French  garrison 
was  feeble  and  mutinous,  and  when  the  commander 
found  that  his  supplies  had  been  captured,  he  relieved 
the  embarrassment  of  the  besiegers  by  offering  to  capit-  June  17. 
ulate.  The  capitulation  included  six  hundred  and  fifty 
regular  soldiers,  and  near  thirteen  hundred  effective  in- 
habitants of  the  town,  all  of  whom  were  to  be  shipped  to 
France.  The  Island  of  St.  John's  presently  submitted 
on  the  same  terms.  The  loss  during  the  siege  was  less 
than  a  hundred  and  fifty,  but  among  those  reluctantly 
detained  to  garrison  the  conquered  fortress  ten  times 
as  many  perished  afterward .  by  sickness.  In  the  ex- 
pedition of  Vernon  and  this ,  against  Louisburg  per- 


398  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  ishecT  a  large  number  of  the-  remaining  Indians  of  New 

XXV 

1_  England,  persuaded  to  enlist  as  soldiers  in  the  colonial 

1745.  regiments. 

Some  dispute  arose  as  /to  the  relative  merits  of  the 
land  and  the  naval  forces,  which  had  been  joined  during 
the  siege  by  additional  ships  from  England.  Pepperell, 
however,  Was  made  a  baronet,  and  both  he  and  Shirley 
were  commissioned  as  colonels  in  the  British  army.  War- 
ren was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  rear  admiral.  The 
capture  of  this  strong  fortress,  effected  in  the  face  of  many 
obstacles,  shed,  indeed,  a  momentary  luster  over  one  of 
the  most  unsuccessful  wars  in  which  Britain  was  ever 
engaged.  It  attracted,  also,  special  attention  to  the 
growing  strength  and  enterprise  of  the  people  of  .New 
England,  represented  by  Warren,  in  his  communications 
to;  the  ministry,  as  having  "  the  highest  notions  of  the 
rights  and  liberties  of  Englishmen  ;  .and,  indeed,  as  al- 
most Levelers." 

The  French,  on  their  side,  were'  not  idle.  The  gar- 
rison ,of  Crown' Point  sent  out  a  detachment,  which  took 
the  Massachusetts  fort  at  Hoosick,  now  Williamstown, 
and  presently  surprised  and  ravaged  the  settlement  re- 
cently established  at  Saratoga.  Even  the  counties  of 
Ulster  and  Orange,  on  the  lower  Hudson,  struck  with 
panic,  expected  the  speedy  arrival  of  Canadian  and  In- 
dian invaders. 

The  easy  conquest  of  Louisburg  revived  the  often  dis- 
appointed hope  of  the  conquest  of  Canada.  Shirley  sub- 
mitted to  Newcastle  a  plan  for  a  colonial  army  to  un- 
dertake this  enterprise.  But  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  then 
at  the  head  of  the  British  marine,  took  alarm  at  the 
idea  of  "  the  independence  it  might  create  jn  those  prov- 
inces when  they  shall  see  within  themselves  so  great  an 
army,  possessed  of  so  great  a  country  by  right  of  con- 


.THIRD    INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  399 

quest."     The  old  plan  was  therefore  preferred  ef  sending  CHAPTER 

a  fleet  ,and  army  from  England  to  capture  Quebec,  to 

be  joined  at  Louisburg  by  the  New  England  levies,  1746. 
while  the  forces  of  the  other  colonies  operated  in  the  rear 
against  Montreal: 

Orders  were  accordingly  sent  to-  the  colonies  to  raise  April, 
troops,  which  the  king  would  pay.  Hardly  were'  these 
orders  across  the  Atlantic  when  the  ministers  changed 
their  mind  ;  but,  before  the  countermand  arrived,  the  co- 
lonial levies  were  -already  on  foot.  In  spite  of  the  mor- 
tality at  Louisburg,  Massachusetts  raised  three  thousand 
five  hundred  men,  Connecticut,  raised  a  thousand,  New 
Hampshire  five  hundred,  Rhode  Island  three  hundred. 
The  province  of  New  York  voted  sixteen  hundred  men, 
New  Jersey  five  hundred,  Maryland  three  hundred,  Vir- 
ginia one  hundred.  Money  was  voted  by  the.  Pennsyl- 
vania Assembly  for  enlisting  four  hundred  men.  The 
troops  from  the  southern  colonies,  and  those  also  from 
Connecticut,  assembled  at  Albany.  The  command,  de-  Aug, 
clined  by  Governor  Gouch,  of  Virginia,  was  assumed  by 
Clinton,  of  New  York.  Not  only  was  Clinton  involved 
in  a  violent  controversy  with  the  Assembly,  but  a  ma- 
jority of  tha  council,  headed  by  Delancey,  the  chief 
justice,  continued  to  sit  at  New  York  during  the  gov- 
ernor's absence  at  Albany,  and  to  dispute  with  him  the 
administration  of  the  province.  His  military  command 
was  not  less  embarrassing.  The  corporation  of  Albany 
refused  to  provide  > quarters  for  the  soldiers ;  the  bills 
drawn  by  Clinton. on  the  British  treasury  failed  to  pur- 
chase provisions ;  impressment  was  resorted  to,  but  it  was 
not  without  difficulty  that  the  troops  were  subsisted. 

The  office  of  agent  for  the  Five  Nations,  hitherto  held 
by  Major  Schuyler's  son,  had  been  taken  from  him  by 
Clinton  and  given  to  William  Johnson,  who  led^a  party 


400  rilSTORY    OF    THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  of  Mohawks  destined  to  act  in  front  of  the  main  army. 

XXV  ' 

'  Of  Scotch-Irish  descent,  Johnson  had  established  him- 
1746.  self  some,  ten  or  twelve  years  previously  on  the  Mohawk 
River,  thirty  miles  west  of  Albany,  at  the  head  of  a  new 
frontier  settlement,  undertaken  on  behalf  of  his  uncle, 
Admiral  Warren,  who  had  married  in  New  York*  and 
had  thus  been  led  to  engage  in  colonial  land  speculations. 
'f  A  man  of  Coarse  but  vigorous  mind,  and  great  bodily 
strength,  Johnson  carefully  cultivated  the  good  will  of  the 
Mohawks,  with  whom  he  carried  on  a  lucrative  traffic. 
He  had  an  Indian  wife  or  mistress,  sister  of  the  after- 
ward celebrated  Brant ;  he  acknowledged  as  his  own 
several  half-breed  Indian  children ;  and  already  had  at- 
tained, by  conformity  to  their  customs,  and  by  natural 
aptitude,  the  same  influence  over  the  Mohawks  possessed 
in  the  previous  generation  by  Major  Schuyler. 

As  the  British  fleet  did  not  make  its  appearance,  fif- 
teen hundred  of  the  Massachusetts  troops  were  marched 
to  Albany  to  join  Clinton.  But  attention  was  soon 
drawn  to  matters  nearer  home.  Instead  of  the  expected 
English  squadron,  a  French  fleet  of  forty  ships  of  war, 
with  three  thousand  veteran  troops  on  board,  had  sailed 
for  the  American  coast,  exciting  a  greater  alarm  through- 
out New  England  than  had  been  felt  3ince  the  threaten- 
ed invasion  of  1697.  This  alarm,  the  non-appearance 
of  the  Pritish  fleet,  and  the  various  difficulties  encounter- 
ed on  the  march,  put  a  stop  to  the  advance  on  Montreal. 
A  body  of  troops  -from  Canada  appeared  at  the  head  of 
the  Bay  of  Fundy,  and,  being  joined  by  the  French  in- 
habitants there,  threatened  an  attack  on  _Annapolis. 
Boston  was  thought  to  be  the  great  object  of  the  enemy. 
To  defend  it,  some  ten  thousand  militia  were  collected, 
and  such  additions  were  made^  to  the  fort  on  Castle  Isl- 
and as  to  render  it  the  strongest  British  fortress  in  Ameri- 


THIRD    INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  40  j 

ca.      The   French  fleet,  shattered  by  storms  and'  deci-  CHAPTER 

.  XXV 

mated  by  a  pestilential  fever,  effected  nothing  beyond L^_ 

alarm.      The  admiral  died,  the  vice-admiral   committed  1746. 
suicide.      The  command  then  devolved  on  La  Jonquiere, 
appointed  governor  general  of  New  France  as  successor 
to  Beauharnois,  who  had  held  that  office  for  the  last 
twenty  years.     A  second  storm  dispersed  the  ships,  which 
returned  singly  to  France.  •-  After  the  capture  of  Jon-  1747. 
quiere  in  a  second  attempt  to  reach  Canada,  the  office 
of  governor  general  devolved  on  La  Galissonniere. 

Parliament  subsequently  reimbursed  to  the  cplonies 
the  expenses  of  their  futile  preparations  against  Canada, 
amounting'to  d£235,OOQ,  or  upward  of  a  million  of  dollars. 

Indian  parties  from  Canada  severely  harassed  the  fronr 
tier  of  New  England.  Even  the  presence  of  a  British 
squadron  on  the  coast  was  not  without  embarrassments. 
Commodore  Knowles,  while  lying  in  Boston  harbor,  find- 
ing himself  short  of  men,  sent  a  press-gang  one  morning  Nov. 
into  the  town,  which  seized  and  carried  off  several  of  the 
inhabitants.  As  soon  as  this  violence  became  known,  an 
infuriated  mob  assembled,  and,  finding, several  officers  of 
the  squadron  on  shore,  seized  them  as  hostages  for  their 
imprisoned  fellow-townsmen.  Surrounding  the  town- 
house,  where  the  General  Court  was  in  session,  they  de- 
manded redress.  After  a  vain  attempt  to  appease  the  tu- 
mult, Shirley  called  out  the  militia '*  but  they  were  very 
slow  to  obey.  Doubtful -of  his  own  safety,  he  retired  to 
the  castle,  whence  he  wrote  to  Knowles,  representing  the 
confusion  he  had  caused,  and  urging  the'  discharge  of 
the  persons  impressed.  Knowles  offered  a  body  of  ma* 
rines  to  sustain  the  governor's  authority,  and  threat- 
ened to  bombard  the  town  unless  his  officers  were  re- 
leased. The  mob,  on  the  other  hand,  began  to  question 
whether  the  governor's  retirement  to  the  castle  did  not 
II— C  c 


402  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITED,  STATES. 

CHAPTER  amount  to  a^abdication.      Matters  assumed  a. very  se- 

XXVj  ' 

.  rious  aspect ;  and  those  influential  persons  who  Irad 
1747.  countenanced  the  tumult,  now  thought  it  time  to  inter- 
fere for  its  suppression.  The  House  of  Representatives 
resolved  to  stand  by  the  governor  "  with  their  lives  and 
fortunes."  The  council  ordered  the  release  of  the  offi- 
cers. The  inhabitants  of  Boston,  at  a  town  meeting, 
shifted  off  the  credit  of 'the  riot  upon  "  negroes  and  per- 
sons of  vile  condition."  The  governor  was  escorted  back 
by  the  militia ;.  Knowles  discharged  the  greater  part  of 
the  impressed  -  men,  and  presently  departed  with  his 
squadron.-  No  allusion  was  made,  in  the  course  of  this 
affair,  to  the  statute  of  Anne  prohibiting  impressments 
in  America.  That  act,  indeed.,  according  to  the  .opin- 
ion of  several  English  crown  lawyers,  had  expired  with 
Queen  Anne's  war.  .  Shirley,  in  his  letters  to  the  Board 
of  Trade  on  the  subject  of  this  "rebellious  insurrection,"" 
ascribes  "  the  mobbish  turn  of  a  town  of  twenty  thou- 
sand persons"  to  its  constitution,  which  devolved  the 
management  of  its  affairs  on  "  the  populace,  assembled 
in  town  meetings."  Boston  had  already  attained  an 
amount  of  population  at 'which,  it  remained  stationary 
for  the  next  fifty  years. 

The  towns-  of  guffield,  Somers,  Enfield,  and  Wood- 
stock, originally  settled  under  Massachusetts  grants,  and 
assigned  to  that  province  in  1713  by  the  boundary  con- 
vention with  Connecticut,  finding  the  fate  of  taxation 
in  Massachusetts  enhanced  by  the  late  military  expenses, 
applied  to  Connecticut  to  take  them  into  her  jurisdiction. 
They  claimed  'to  be  within,  the  Connecticut  charter. 
They  alleged  that  the  former  agreement  had  never  been 
ratified  by  the  ^  crown,  and  that  Connecticut  had  re- 
ceive^ no  equivalent ,  for  lier  surrender  of  jurisdiction. 
This  application  was  listened  to  with  favor.  Some  show, 


THIRD    INTERCOLONIAL,  WAR.  493 

indeed,  was  made  of  asking  the  consent  of  Massachu-  CHAPTER 

XXV 

setts ;  but,  when  that  consent  was  refused,  the'  tewns  ^_ 

were  received  by  Connecticut  without  it,  and  to  that  1747. 
province  they  have  ever  since  belonged.  Massachusetts 
threatened  an  appeal  to-  the  king  in  council,  but  hesi- 
tated to  prosecute  it,  lest  she  might  lose,  as  in  her  for- 
mer controversy  with  New  Hampshire,  not  only  the 
towns  in  dispute,  but  other  territory  also. 

Some  liberated  prisoners  from  Martinique,  a  great  re- 
sort for  French  cruisers,  brought  a-  report  to  Philadelphia 
that  a  fleet  of  privateers,  knowing  the  unfortified  state 
of  that  city,  and  trusting  that  the  Quakers  would  not 
fight,  intended  to  make  a  combined  expedition  up  the 
Delaware.  In  consequence  of  this  alarm,  fortifications 
were  erected  and  a  military  organization  adopted  in 
Pennsylvania.  The  Assembly  still  refused  to  do  any 
thing  ;  but  an  associated  volunteer  militia,  ten  thou- 
sand strong,  was  organized  and  equipped^  Money  was 
also  raised  by  lottery  to 'erect  batteries  for  the  defense 
of  the  Delaware,  toward  which  the  proprietaries  contrib- 
uted twelve  pieces  of  cannon.  « Plain  Truth,"  a1  lit- 
tle pamphlet  written  by  Franklin,  greatly  contributed  to 
these  movements.  By  twenty  years  of  diligent  labor 
as  a  printer,  newspaper -publisher,  and  editor,  Franklin 
had  acquired  a  handsome  property  ;  and,  at  the  age  of 
forty,  he  now  began  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  polit- 
ical affairs  of  the  province,  being  chosen  a  member  of  the 
Assembly,  of  which  for  ten  years  previous  he  had  acted 
as  clerk. 

A  portion  of  the  Quakers  were'  inclined  to  justify  de- 
fensive War.  Chew,  chief  justice  6f  Delaware,  had  been 
disowned  by  the  yearly  meeting  for  avowing  that  opin- 
ion, but  it  still*  continued  to  gain  ground,  fc  -The  now 
venerable  Logan,  who,'  indeed, »had  never  been  much  of  a 


404  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

<j«A|TER  Quaker,  entertained  the  same  views  ;  but  increasing  age 
arid  infirmities  had  withdrawn  him  for-  "some  time  from 

1747.  active  participation  in  affairs, 

The  war  so  inconsiderately  begun,  through  the  reso- 
lution of  the  British  merchants  to  force  a  trade  with 
.  Spanish  America,  after  spreading  first  to  Europe  and 
then  to  India,  and  adding  $144,000,000,  £30,000,000, 
to  the  British  national  debt,  was  at  last  brought  to  a 

1748.  close  .by  the  Deface,  of  Aix  la  Chapelle.     Notwithstand- 
ing a  former  emphatic  declaration  .of  the  British  govern- 
ment that  peace  never  should  be  made  unless  the  right 
to  navigate  the  Spanish- American  seas  free  from  search 
were  conceded,  that  claim,  the  original  pretense  for  the 
war,  was  hot  even  alluded  to  in  the  treaty.      The  St. 
Mary's  was  fixed  as  the  boundary  of  Florida.     Much  to 
the  mortification  of  the  people  jef  New  England,  Cape 
Breton  and  the  conquered  fortress  of  Louisburg  were  re- 
stored to  the  French,  who  obtained,  in  addition,  the.  lit- 
tle islands  of  St,  Pierre   and   Miquelon,   on  the   south 
coast  of  Newfoundland,  as  stations  for  their  fishermen. 
A  new  commission  was  also  agreeol  to  for  the  settlement 
of  French  and  English  boundaries  in  America- — a  mat- 
ter left  uhsettled  since  the  treaty  of  Eyswick. 

Massachusetts  was  somewhat  consoled  for  the  retro- 
cession of  Louisburg  by  an  indemnity-  toward  the  ex- 
pense of  its  capture,  obtained  through  the  diligence  of 
Bollan,  Shirley's  son-in-law,  sent  as  agent  to  solicit  it. 
The  sum  allowed  amounted  to  £183,000,  or  upward  of 
$800,000,  ^nearly  the  whole  of  which  belonged  to  Mas- 
sachusetts. The  paper  money  of  that  province,  increased 
by  repeated  issues  during  the  war,  amounted  now  to 
£2,200,000,  equivalent,  when  issued,  to  about  as  many 
dollars,  but  depreciated  since  the  issue^fujl  one  half,  the 
whole  depreciation  being  at  the  rate  of  seven  or  eight 


SPECIE   CURRENCY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.        495 

for  one.      This  great  and  i  rapid  fall  had  contributed  to  CHAPTER 
open  people's  eyes  to  the  true  'character  of  the  paper  ______ 

money.  All  debts,  rents,  salaries,  and  fixed  sums  pay-  1748. 
able  at  a  future  period^1  had  experienced  an  enormous 
and  most  unjust  curtailment.  The  paper  bills,  a  .legal 
tender  at  their  nominal  amount,  had  been  made  the  in- 
struments of  cruel  frauds  upon  widows,  orphans,  and  all  ; 
the  more  helpless  members  of  society.  The  ministers, 
though  partially  indemnified  by 'a  special  act  in  their 
favor,  had  suffered  a  great  falling  off  in  their  salaries, 
and  they  gave  their  decided  and  weighty  influence 
against  the  bills.  It  was  proposed  to  import  the  Cape 
Breton  indemnity  in  silver,  to  redeem  at  once  at  its 
current  value  all  the  outstanding  paper,  and  to  adhere 
in  future  to  a  currency  of  coin. 

This  project,  which  had  the  support  of  Governor  Shif- 
loy,  was  warmly  advocated  by  Thomas  Hutchinson,  (for 
nine  years  past  representative  of  Boston,  and  now  speak- 
er of  the  House.  His  father,  a  successful  merchant,  a 
great-grandson  of  the  famous  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  had  left 
him  a  considerable  property.  A  graduate  of  Cambridge, 
at  first  he  had  applied  himself  to  trade,  but  with  little 
success.  He  then  turned  his  attention  to  politics,  in- 
clining to  the  conservative  or  government  side.  Already 
influential,  for  the  next  quarter  of.  a  century  he  played 
a  very  conspicuous  part. 

The  withdrawal  of  the  paper  money  encountered  warm 
opposition  from  many  interested  sand  many  ignorant  per- 
sons, who  strove  to  impress  the  people  with  the  idea 
that,  if  there  were  no  other  money  than  silver,  it  would 
all  be  engrossed  and  hoarded  by  the  rich,  while  the  poor 
could  expect  no  share  in  so  precious  a  commodity1!  It 
was  said,  also,  that  "the  bills  ought  to  be  redeemed  at 
their  nominal  and  not  at  thoir  actual  value.  In  spite 


406  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  of  this  and  other  similar  arguments,  the  proposition,  after 
having  been  once  lost  in  the  House,  was  sanctioned  by 

1749.  the  General  Court.     Leaving  the  administration  of  Mas- 
Sept.  11.  sachusetts  in  the  hands  of  Spencer  Phipps,  the  lieuten- 
ant governor,  nephew  and  heir  of  the  late  Sir  William 
Phipps,   Shirley  had  proceeded  to  England,  and,  upon 
arriving  there,  was  appointed  one  of  the  commissioners, 
under  the  late  treaty  of  peace,  to  settle  boundaries  with 
the  French. 

1750.  Amid  much  public  gloom  and  doubt,  the  indemnity 
money  having  arrived  in  specie,  the  paper  was  redeemed 
at  a  rate  about  one  fifth  less  than  the  current  value.     All 
future  debts  were  to  be  paid  in  silver,  at  the  rate  of  6s. 
8d.  the  ounce,  and  Massachusetts,  for  the  next  quarter 
of  a  century >  enjoyed  the  blessing  of  a  sound  currency. 
Having  thus  set  the  example,  resolved  to  drive  the  other 
New.  England  colonies  into  the  same  measure,  she  pro- 
hibited the  circulation  of  their  paper  within  her  limits. 
Connecticut  called  in  her^bills,  but  Rhode  Island  proved 
obstinate.     William  Greene,  chosen  governor  of  Rhode 
Island  in  1743,  had  been  succeeded  in  17 45 -by  Gideon 
Wanton.      Greene  and  Wanton  held  the  office  alternate- 
ly till  1748,  after  which  Greene  was  elected  for  seven 
years  in.  succession. 

1751.  Forgetting  her  former  constitutional  scruples,  Massa- 
chusetts applied  for  and  obtained  an  act  of  Parliament 
prohibiting  the  New  England  Assemblies,  except  in  case 
of  war  or  invasion,  to  issue  any  bills  of  credit,  for  the  re- 
demption of  which,  ^within  the"  year,  provision  was  not 
made  at  the  time  o'f  the  issue.     In  no  case  could  these 
bills  be  made  a  legal  tender.     It  is  a  great  proof  of  the 
progress  of  sound  notions  on  the  subject  of  finance,  that 
the  use  of  a  specie  currency,  ineffectually  forced  on  the 
reluctant  colonists  by  orders  in  council  and  acts  of  Par- 


THEATRI-CALS   IN  AMERICA—  NEW   HAMPSHIRE. 


liament,  has  become,  in  our  days,  a  universal  favorite,  CHAPTER 

XXV 

and  has  even  been  made  asdemocratic  test.  .  _ 

The  late.  religious.  -excitement  had  contributed  to  deep-  1750. 
en  the  fading  traces  of  the  old  Puritanism.  Some  young  ' 
Englishmen  created  an  alarm  by  getting  up  at  a  Boston 
coffee-house  a  representation  of  Otway's  Orphan.  .  'All 
such  exhibitions  were  forthwith  prohibited,  "as  tending 
to  discourage  industry  and  frugality,  and  greatly  to  in- 
crease impiety  and  contempt  for  religion."  A  similar 
prohibition  in  Connecticut  remains  iri  force  to  the  pres- 
ent day.  These  laws  were  quite  in  season.  Theatric- 
al performances,  in  professional  style,  werei  -soon  after  1752. 
introduced  into  America  by  a  company  of'  actors  from 
London,  led  by  William  and  Lewis  Hallam.  The  first 
play,  the  Beau's  Stratagem,  seems  ta  'have  been  perform- 
ed by  a  part  of  the.  company  at  Annapolis.  The  Mer- 
chant of  Venice,  by  the  whole  company,  was  presently 
brought  out  at  Williamsburg.  This  company  circulated 
between  Williamsburg,  Annapolis,  Philadelphia,  P^rth 
Amboy,  New  York,  and  Newport.  Into  Connecticut  or 
Massachusetts  the  law  did  not  allow  them  to  venture. 

Wentworth,  governor  of  New  Hampshire,  had  flattered 
himself  with  gradually  introducing  into  that  province 
u  the  rights  of  the  crown  ;"  but  he  soon  found  that,  "hav- 
ing been  so  long  under  the  same  government  With  Mas- 
sachusets,  it  had  assumed  the  same  form  of  government." 
The  settlements  of  New  Hampshire  continued  to  extend  ; 
and,  shortly  after  the  peace,  Wentworth  began  to  issue 
grants  west  of  the  Connecticut,  in  what  is  now  the  state 
of  Vermont.  New  Hampshire  had  formerly  been  reck- 
oned to  extend,  according  to  the  terms  of  Mason's  grant, 
only  sixty  miles  into  the  interior.  Wentworth's  commis- 
sion included  all  the  territory  "  to  the  boundaries  of  iris 
majesty's  other  provinces."  '  New  York,  by  virtue  of  the 


408  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  patent  of  Charles  II.,  claimed,  as  her  eastern  boundary, 
the  Connecticut  River ;  but  this  claim,  as  against  Con- 
1752.  necticut,  had  been  formally  relinquished;  as  against  Mas- 
sachusetts, it  was  not  seriously  insisted  on ;  Tind,  under 
the  pretense  that  his  province  ought  to  have  a  westerly 
extent  commensurate  with  .that  of  Massachusetts  and 
Connecticut,  Went  worth,  granted  fifteen  townships  west 
of  Connecticut  River,  adjoining  the  recent  Massachu- 
setts settlements  on  the  Hoosick,  among  the  first  of 
which  was  Benningt&n,  so  called  after  his  own  Chris- 
.tian  name.  Emigrants  from  Connecticut  and  Massa- 
chusetts began  to  occupy  these  grants ;  but  the  speedy 
renewal  of  the  French  and  Indian  war  soon  put  a  stop 
to  settlement. 

The  boundary  between  New  York  and  Massachusetts, 
and  that,  also,  between  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  were 
still  subjects  of  dispute;  and  as  the  validity  of  many 
private  land  claims  depended  .on  these  lines,  they  became, 
on  that  account,  the  more  difficult  to  settle.  Yet  their 
settlement  became  every  day  the  more  essential,  to  pre- 
vent collision  between  occupants  under  conflicting  grants. 
The'  population  of  New  York  amounted  now  to  about 
one  hundred  thousand.  Like  Pennsylvania  and  the  Car- 
oliiias,  it  contained  a  great  admixture,  but  those  of  Butch 
origin  still  constituted  a  majority.  To  the  descendants 
of  the  old  immigrants  from  New  England,  and  of  the 
more  recent  Huguenot,  settlers,  among  whom  were  to  be 
found  many  of  the  wealthiest  merchants,  had  been  add- 
ed considerable  bodies  of  immigrant  Germans,  of  Scotch- 
Irish  Presbyterians,  and  Scotch  Highlanders.  The  ex- 
tensive old  Dutch  grants,  and  others  on  the  same  princi- 
ple, more  recently  made  by  the  royal  governors  to  itheir 
friends  and  partisans  in  the  council  and  Assembly,  op- 
posed serious  obstacles  to  the  rapid  population  of  the  prov- 


NEW  YORK— KING'S   COLLEGE.  409 

ince.      These  lands  were  held  at  prices  which  new  set-  CHAPTER 

XXV 

tiers  were  unwilling  to  pay,  or  were  burdened  with  quit- 

rents  and  other  feudal  encumbrances,  always  very  un-  1752. 
popular  in  America/  The  settlements  were  still  limited 
to  Manhattan,  Staten  Island,  Long  Island,  and  the  im- 
mediate vicinity  of  the  Hudson.  Almost  the  whole  re- 
gion west  of  that  river,  as  yet  unexplored  and  very  little 
known,  remained  still  a  hunting  ground  of  the  Six 
Nations. 

The  subject  of  education  hitherto  had  excited  little  at- 
tention in  New  York.  Delancey  was  the  only  "  aca- 
demic" on  the  bench,  Smith  the  only  one  at  the  bar. 
There  was  no  person  of  college  education  in  either  branch 
of  the  Legislature.  Steps  were  taken  toward  the  found-  1  748. 
ation  of  a  college,  afterward  called  "King's,"  now  "Co- 
lumbia," by  the  passage  of  an  act  for  raising  by  lottery 
a  small  sum  for  that  purpose.  The  province  was  divided 
by  differences  of  religion  no  less  than  of  .race,  and' this  f 
college,  of  which  the  Episcopalians  engrossed  the  man- 
agement, soon  became  a  bone  pf  contention  between 
them  and  the  Presbyterians,,  with  whom  the  members 
of  the  Dutch  Church  sided.  Hence  a  new  arrangement 
of  parties,  which  continued  to  divide  the  province  down 
to  the  period  of  the  Revolution,  and  not  without  serious 
influence  on  that  great  event. 

The  Episcopal  party  was  headed  by  James  Delancey, 
the  chief  justice  and  counselor,  already  repeatedly  men- 
tioned, a  man  skilled  in  all  those  arts  and  possessed  of 
all  those  talents  essential  to  a  popular  leader.  Delan- 
cey, as  has  been  mentioned  already,  was  at  .this  time  in 
opposition  to  the  governor,  and  a  perpetual  thorn  in  his 
side.  The  general  tendency,  however,  of  the  Episcopal- 
ians was  to  support  the  government  party.  v  The  lead- 
ership of  the  Presbyterians  was  presently  •  assumed  by 


410  HISTORY    OF    THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  Livingstons,  Philip  and  William,  grandsons  of  the 

grantee  of  the  manor  of  Livingston — the  one  a  mer- 

1752.  chant,  the  other  a  lawyer,  and  both  of. them  distinguished 
at  a  subsequent  period  as  revolutionary  leaders.  The 
Huguenots  in  New  York,  as  in  South  Carolina,  seem 
generally  to  have  conformed  to  the  Church  of  England. 
Delancey  himself  was  of  Huguenot  origin. 

The  province  of  New  Jersey,  under  the  administra- 
tion of  the  aged  Morris,  had  grown  year  by  year  more 
unmanageable.  To  the  old  disputes  about  paper  money 
and  the  rights  of  the  Assembly  had  lately  been  added  a 
violent  resistance  to  the  laws  by  persons  known  as  the 
Elizabeth  town  claimants,  who  had"  entered  and  settled 
upon  lands  of  the  East  Jersey  Company  under  pretense 
of  conveyances  from  the  Indians,  made  with  the  appro- 
bation of  Nichols  before  New  Jersey  existed  as  a  sepa- 
rate province.  These  disorders  increased  after  Morris's 
death,  and  spread  also  into  the  neighboring  counties  of 
New  "York.  The  squatters  associated  and  maintained 
themselves  by  force  against  every  attempt  to  turn  them 
out.  The  Assembly  was  repeatedly  called  upon  to  in- 
terfere, .but  'that  body  was  little  anxious  to  -relieve  the 
embarrassments  of  a  government  to  which  it  would  not 
even  grant  the  customary  annual  salaries  except  by  an 
issue  of  paper  money  contrary  to  the  royal  instructions. 

1746.  After'  remaining  for  a  year  or  more  in  the  hands  of  >  the 
council,  with  Hamilton  first  and  'then  Reading  as  presi- 
dent, the  direction  of  affairs  passed  to  Belcher,  to  whom 

,  this  troublesome  and  difficult  post  was  given  as  a  tardy 

compensation  for  the  loss  of  Massachusetts.      Belcher 

1747.  called  an  Assembly,  by  \Vhich  an  attempt  was  presently 
Aus-     made  to  quiet  disorders  by  an  act  of  oblivion  and  par- 

x  don,  oh  conditions,  however,  of  which  few  of  the  squat- 
ters availed  themselves.     This  act  was  complained  of 


COLLEGE  AT  PRINCETON.  4  ^ 

by  the  proprietaries  as  tending  rather  to  encourage  than  CHAPTER 

to  suppress  the  insurgents,  and  presently  they  appealed __ 

to  the  king,  in  which  they t were  supported  by  a  xepre-  1748. 
sentation  from  the  council.      After  a  long  delay,  a  com-     Dec 
mission  of  inquiry  was  ordered  from  England;  but,  pend-  1751. 
ing  the  inquiry,  the  squatters  remained  in  possession —     Jul 
a  result  which  "they  considered  equivalent  to  a  triumph. 
A  chancery  suit,  already  commenced  by  the  proprieta- 
ries against  the  Elizabeth  town  claimants.,  remained  pend- 
ing without  any  decision  down  to  the  time  of  the  Rev- 
olution. 

On  the  paper  money  controversy,  and  other  points  in 
dispute,  Belcher  adopted  a  conciliatory  policy  which  rec- 
ommended him  to  the  Assembly,  but  exposed  him  to 
the  rebukes  of  the  Board  of  Trade.  He  was  a  great  ad- 
mirer of  Whitfield,  and  a  warm  patron  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian college  established  at  Princeton  in  1746,  and  char- 
tered in  1748. 

By  the  death  of  John  Penn  without  issue,  his  half  of  1746. 
Pennsylvania  descended  to  his  next  brother,  Thomas, 
who  thus  became  proprietor  of  three  fourths  of  the  prov- 
ince. To  increase  their  influence,  the  proprietaries  had 
adopted  the  practice  of  appointing  judicial  and  other  offi- 
cers, not  during  good  behavior,  as  formerly,  but  during  the 
pleasure  of  the  proprietaries.  At  first  this  innovation 
did  not  attract  much  attention  ;  but  the  Assembly  began 
now  to  complain  of  it  as  an  abuse  of  power,  and  a  sub^ 
stantial  violation  of  the  charter.  The  practice  was  also 
adopted  of  giving  to  the  deputy  governor  secret  instruc- 
tions, which  his  bond  to  the  proprietaries  obliged  him  to 
obey,  but  which,  at  the  same  time,  he  was  forbidden  to 
communicate  to  the  Assembly. 

On  the  retirement  of  Thomas,  worn  out  in.  the  strug- 
gle "  with  an  obstinate  and  wrong-headed  Assembly  of 


412  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  Quakers,"  the 'office  of  deputy 'governor  was  given  to 

__  James  Hamilton,  a  native  of  the  province,. :son  of  that 

1746.  former  speaker  of  the  Assembly  so  much  distinguished 
in  Zenger's  trial. 

Hamilton  was  a  man  of  talent ;  but  no  talent  could 
.reconcile  the  diametrically  opposing  views,  of  .the  Assem- 
bly and  the  proprietaries.  The  Assembly  desired  new 
issues  of  paper,  not  only  as  an  economical  expedient,  but 
because  the  interest  on  the  loans,,  by  the  terms  of -the 
acts,  constituted  a  fund  entirely  at  their  control.  The 
same  was  the  case  with  the  excise  duties,  originally  im- 
posed in  1744,  and  continued  in  1746,  for  ten  years,  to 
sink  £5000  in  paper  money  granted  for  the  abortive 
Canada  expedition,  but  far  exceeding  the  amount  needed 
for  that  purpose/  Hamilton  was  directed  by  his  secret 
instructions  to  consent  to  no  new  paper  issues,  nor  to 
any  renewal  of  the  excise,  unless  the  resulting  revenue 
were  placed  under  the  joint  control  of  the  governor  and 
the' Assembly.  »  The  Assembly,  on  their. side,  were  not 
passive.  It  had  been  an  old  complaint  that  the  province 
was  at  the  sole  expense  of  Indian  treaties,  of  which  the 
chi^f  benefit  resulted  to  the  proprietaries  in  the  cession 
of  lajids.  That  complaint  was  now  renewed.  A  claim 
was  also  set  up  that  proprietary  manors  and  quit-rents 
ought  to  be  taxed  in  common  with  the  private  property 
of  the  other  inhabitants,  toward  the  general  expenses  of 
the  province.  Hamilton^  in  a  series  of  messages  on  this 
subject,  maintained  the  cause  of  the  proprietaries  with 
great  ability,  but  -he  found, his  match  in  FrankMn,  to 
whom  the.  preparation  of  answers  was  intrusted  by  his 
fellow-members  of  Assembly, 

Franklin,  however,  was  much  more  than  a  mere  par- 
ty politician.  Owing,  among  other  things,  to  the  inter- 
mixture of  languages,  races,  and  sects,  the  important 


PENNSYLVANIA— MARYLAND. 

subject  of  education  had  been  almost  as  much  neglected  CHAPTER 

xxv 
in  Pennsylvania  as  in  New  .York.      Franklin  projected  .  ' 

an  academy  and  free  school,  which  became  presently  a 
college?,  and  finally  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  He 
promoted,  also,  the,  foundation  of  the  Philadelphia  Li- 
brary and  of  the  Philadelphia 'Hospital.  The  first  na- 
tive of  America  who  wrote  the  English  language  with, 
classic  taste  and  elegance,  he  edited,  printed,  and  pub- 
lished the  first  American  periodical  magazine.  But  this 
experiment  was  premature,  arid,  after  a  year  or  twor  the 
magazine  was  discontinued  for  want  of  support. '  Pres-^ 
ently  he  became  famous  for  his  electrical  discoveries,  1752. 
which  gave  him  a  reputation  in  Europe  such  as  no  other 
American  has  ever  acquired.  Philadelphia  could  boast, 
at  the  same  time,  other  citizens  of  distinguished  merit : 
Godfrey,  the  inventor  of  the  quadrant,  which  bears  the 
name  of  Halley,  and  Bartramy  the'  first  American  bota- 
nist— friends  and -neighbors  of  Franklin,  and,  jointly  with 
him,  pioneers  of  American  science. 

Thomas  Bladen,  a  native  of  Maryland,  married  to  a  1742. 
sister  of  .Lady  Baltimore,  had  been  appointed  to. succeed 
Ogle  in  the  government  of  that  province.     But  the  vio- 
lent altercations  with  the  Assembly,  in  which  Bladen's 
hot  temper  involved  him,  threw  doubts  on^  the  policy  of 
appointing  native  governors,  and  Ogle  wa,s  presently  re-  1747. 
instated  in  office — a  position  which  he  still  held  when 
Frederic,  sixth  arid  last  Lord  Baltimore,  succeeded  to  1751. 
the  title  and  proprietary  rights.      The  remainder  of  the 
Nanticokes,  the   aboriginal  inhabitants   of  the    eastern 
shore  of  Maryland,  emigrated  about  this  time  to  the  up- 
per waters  of  the  Susquehanna,  carrying  with  them  the 
bones  of  therr  fathers. 

The  inferiority  of  social  position  in  which  the  .Catho- 
lics were  still  kept,  and  the  mortifications  to  which  they 


414  HISTORY   OF    THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  were  subjected,  led  >to  an  application  on  their  behalf  to 
.          the  court  of  France  for  a  grant'  of  lands  in  Louisiana. 
1751:  This  application  was  made  by  Charles  Carroll,  a  wealthy 
proprietor,  the  hereditary  land  agent  of  the  Baltimore 
family,  one  of  whose  sons  became  afterward  a  signer  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  another  the  first 
Catholic  archbishop  of  the  United  States.     Nothing,  how- 
ever, came  of  this  application.      The  French  court,  it  i& 
probable,  doubted  the  policy  of  introducing  English  set- 
tlers into  Louisiana. 

The  town  of  Baltimore,  laid  out  in  1729,  was  incor- 
porated in  1745  ;  but,  for  the  next  twenty  years,  it  re- 
mained a  petty  village.  The  Maryland  Gazette,  the 
first  newspaper  of  that  province,  was  first  published  in 
1745. 

Under 'G  ouch's  quiet  administration  the  population  of 
Virginia  continued  steadily  to  increase.  North  of  James 
River,  .the'  settlements  had  extended  west  of  the  Blue 
Ridge ;  but,  as-  yet,  the  province  was  entirely  rural. 
There  were  no  towns ;  indeed,  hardly  a  village.  The  Cap- 
itol' at  Williamsburg  having  been  burned,  the  burgesses 
wished  to  remove  the  seat  of  government  to  some  situa- 
tion more  favorable  to  commerce  ;  but  that  project  was 
defeated  by  the  council. 

1749.       Just  at  the  close  of  Gouch's  administration  took  place 
the  sixth  and  last  colonial  revisal  of  the  Virginia  code. 

1751.  Fifty-seven   of  these  acts  were  solemnly  approved  and 
ratified  by  the  king  in  council.      Ten  others  were  disal- 
lowed and  declared  void..   The  Assembly  was  equally  dis- 
satisfied with  the  approval  and  with  the  disallowance. 

1752.  "  As -we  conceive,"  they  say,  in  their  humble  address  to 
APnl-    the  king  on  this  occasion,  a  document  which  throws  a 

good  deal  of  light  on  the  forms  of  colonial  legislation, 
"  according  to  the  -ancient  constitution  and  usage  of  this 


VIRGINIA-NORTH   CAROLINA.  4^5 

colony,  all  laws  enacted  here  for  the  public-  peace,  wel-  CHAPTER 

fare,  and  good  government  thereof,  and  not  repugnant  to '__ 

the  laws  and  statutes  of  Great  Britain,  have  always  been  1755. 
taken  and  held  to  be  in  full  force  until  your  majesty's 
disallowance  thereof  is  notified  here,  and  that  the  same 
may  be  revised,  altered,  and  amended  from  time  to  time 
as  our  exigencies  may  require ;  but  that  when  a  law 
enacted  here  hath  once  received  your  majesty's  approba- 
tion, and  hath  been  confirmed,  and  Anally  enacted  and 
ratified,  the-  same  can  not,  by  the  Legislature  here,  be 
revised,  altered,  dr  amended,  without  a  clause  therein  to 
suspend  the  execution  thereof  till  your  majesty^  pleas- 
ure be  known  therein,  even  though  our  necessities  for  an 
immediate  revisal,  alteration,  or  amendment  be  ever  so 
pressing."  As  the  Assembly  had  all  along  very  -  freely 
exercised  an  unrestricted  power  of  revisal  and  amend- 
ment, very  few  of  the  Virginia  statutes,  we  may  conclude, 
had  hitherto  received  a  specific  royal  approval,  but-  re- 
mained liable  to  be  declared  void,  at  any  time  by  royal 
proclamation. 

In  North  Carolina,  Governor  Johnston  still  continued 
an  unequal  struggle  on  the  subject  of  quit-rents,  the  sole 
fund  for  paying  the  royal  officers.  Almost  in  despair, 
he  wrote  to  the  Board  of  Trade  that  "he  could  not  con-  1746. 
ceive  how  government  can  be  kept  up,  as  the  officers 
were  obliged,,  for  subsistence,  to  live  dispersed  on  small 
plantations,  as  their  salaries  had  been  eight  years  in  ar- 
rears." Urged  by  necessity,  Johnston  resorted  to  "  man- 
agement." The  members  of  .Assembly  from  the  lately- 
settled  southern  counties  were  less  violent  in  their  oppo- 
sition to  the  wishes  of  the  governor  than  those  of  the 
north.  Yet  the  northern  counties,  by  long-established 
usage,  had  five  members  each,. while  the  more  recent 
counties. had  but  two.  Johnston  seized  an  opportunity, 


.v 


416  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  wheit  the  northern  members  were  absent,  to  cai;ry  acts 

XXV 

____^_^  putting  all  the  counties  on  a  level  as  to  members  of  As- 
1746.  sembly,  and  removing  the  seat  of  government  to  Wil- 
mington, a  town  commenced  sirjce  Johnston's  arrival,  and 
named  after  Lord  Wilmington,  one  of  the  ministers,  the 
patron  of  Johnston.  The  six  northern  counties  refused 
to  recognize  the  new  Assembly  as  legal,  or  to  pay  any 
taxes  imposed  by  it,  The  officials,  in  their  turn,  de- 
nounced the  province  "  as  little  better  than  an 'asylum 
for  fugitives,  since  it  was  destitute  of  any  regular  gov- 
ernment." 

In  spite,  however,  of  this  destitution,  the 'population 
continued  to  increase.  Under  the  encouragement  of  the 
parliamentary  bounties,  tar,  pitch,  and  rosin,  the  produce 
of 'immense  pine  forests,  had  become  the  staple  of  the 
southern  districts.  A  large  body,  of  Scotch  Highlanders, 
transported  to  America  on  account  of  their  participation 
in  the  rebellion  of  1745,  settled,  under  the  manage- 
ment of  Neal  M'Neal,  on  the  Cape  Fear  River,  at  Cross 
Creek,  now  Fayetteville.  That  social  change  in  the 
Scotch  Highlands,  which  began  to  substitute  a  few  rent- 
paying  tenants  for,  a  larger  number  of  military  retainers, 
(JroVe  additional  Scotch  emigrants  to  America,  many  of 
whom  settled  in  North  Carolina.  The  northwestern  por- 
tions of  the  province  received  also  many  settlers  from 
the  north  of  Ireland. 

The  northern  counties  carried  to  England  their  com- 
plaints against  the  change  in  the  constitution  of  the  As- 
sembly, but  they  were  obliged  to  submit  to  it ;  and  John- 
1748.  ston  succeeded  at  last  in  carrying  the  act,  so  long  delay- 
ed, for  the  formation  of  a  rent-roll  and  the  collecton  of 
quit^rents. 

The  colonists  of  South  Carolina  had  found  a  new 
staple  in  the  cultivation  of  indigo.  Encouraged  by  an 


. 

SOUTH   CAROLINA— GEORGIA.  4^7 

act  .of  Parliament,  this  new  branch  of  industry  afforded  CHAPTER 

a  resource  for  such  planters  as  had  not  capital  enough 

to  engage  in  the  rice  cultivation,  or  lands  fit  for  that  1749. 
purpose.  Plantations  were  extended,  gangs  of  slaves 
were  multiplied,  the  wealth  of  the  province  was  rapidly 
increasing^  The  rice  growers  of  Carolina  began  to  rival, 
in  luxury  and  expense,  the  sugar  planters  of  the  West 
Indies,  with  whom,  indeed,  they  had  much  more  affinity 
than  with,  the  colonists  of  the  north.  The-  children  of 
the  wealthy  class  were  sent  to  England  to  be  educated; 
and  a  new  generation  began  to  .be  raised  up,  including 
several  young  men  of  superior  talents  and  accomplish- 
ments, Destined  to  take. an  active  part  in  the  approach- 
ing struggle  with  the  mother  country. 

While  South  Carolina  was  thus  advancing,  the  slow 
progress  of  Georgia  furnished  new  proofs,  if  such  were 
needed,  that  the  colonization  of  a  wilderness,  even  With 
abundant  facilities  for  it,  is,  for  the  most  part,  a  tedious 
process  ;  and,  when  undertaken  by  a  company  or  the 
public,  very  expensive. 

The  results  of  their  own  idleness,  inexperience,  and 
incapacity,  joined  to  the  inevitable  obstacles  which  every 
new  settlement  must  encounter,  were  obstinately  as- 
cribed by  the  inhabitants  of  Georgia  to  that  wise  but  in- 
effectual prohibition  of  slavery,  one  of  the  fundamental 
laws  of  the  province.  The  convenience  of  the  moment 
caused  future  consequences  to  be  wholly  overlooked. 
Every  means  Was  made  use  of  to  get  rid  of  this  prohi- 
bition. Even  Whitfield  and  Habersham,  forgetful  of 
their  former  scruples,  strenuously  pleaded  with  the  trust- 
ees in  favor  of  slavery,  under  the  old  pretense  of  propa- 
gating in  that  way  the  Christian  religion.  "  Many  of 
the  poor  slaves  in  America,"  wrote  Habersham,  "  have 
already  been  made  freemen  of  ihe  heavenly  Jerusalem." 
II.— D  i> 


418 


HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED  STATES. 


CHAPTER  The  Salzburgei;s  for  a- long  time  had  scruples,  but  were 
-'  r  TftaasnrftH  by  advice  from  Germany  :  "If  you  take  slaves 
1749.  in  faith,  and  with  intent  "of  conducting  them  to  Christ, 
.the  action  will  not  be  a  sin,  but  may  prove  a  benedic- 
tion." ,  Thus,  as  usual,  the  religious  sentiment  and  its 
most  disinterested  votaries  were  made  tools  of  by  ava- 
rice for  the  enslavement  of  mankind.  Habersham,  how- 
ever, could  hardly  be  included  in  this  class.  Having 
thrown  off  the  missionary,  and  established  a  mercantile 
house  at  Savannah,  the  first,  and  for  a  long  time  the 
only  one  there,  he  was  very  anxious  for  exportable  prod- 
uce. The  counselors  of  Georgia,  for  the:  president  was 
now  so  old  as  to  be  quite  incapacitated  for  business, 
winked  at  violations  of  the  law,  and  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  negroes  had  been  already  introduced  from  Carolina 
as  hired  servants,  under  indentures  for  life  or  a  hundred 
years.  The  constant  toast  at  Savannah  was  "The  one 
thing  needful,"  by  which  was  meant  negroes.  The  lead- 
ing men  both  at  New  Inverness  and  Ebenezer,  who  op- 
posed the  introduction  of  slavery,  were  traduced,  threat- 
ened, and  persecuted. 

Thus  beset,  the  trustees  yielded  at  last,  on  condition 
that  all   masters,  under  "  a  mulct  of  d£5,"  should  be 
obliged  to  compel  their  negroes  "to  attend  at  some  time 
on  the  Lord's  day  for  instruction  in  the  Christian  relig- 
ion"— the: 'origin,  doubtless,  of  the  peculiarly  religious 
character  of  the  negroes  in  and  abou^  Savannah.      The 
trustees  also  abolished  the  restrictions  hitherto  existing 
on  the  tenure  and  transfer  of  lands.      The  aged  Stevens 
having  given  up  his  office  to  Henry  Parker,  a  colonial 
1751.  Assembly  was  called,  not  to  legislate,  for  that  power  be- 
Jan-     longed  solely  to  the  trustees,  but  to  advise  and  consult. 
Parker  was  presently  succeeded  by  Patrick  Graham. 
By  custom,  or  by  statute,  whether  legal  or  illegal. 


SLAVERY   AND  THE   SLAVE   TRADE. 


419 


slavery  existed   as   a   fact  in  every  one,  of  the  -Anglo-  CHAPTER 

American  colonies.      The  soil  and  climate  of  New  En- __ 

gland  made  slaves  of  little  value  there  except  as  domes-  1750. 
tic  servants.  In  1701,  the  town  of  Boston  had  instruct- 
ed its  representatives  in  the  General  Court  to  propose 
"  putting  a  period  to  negroes  being  slaves."  .  About  the 
same-  time,  Sewall,  a  judge  -of  the  Superior  Court,  after- 
ward chief  justice  of  Massachusetts,  published  "  The 
Selling  of  Joseph,"  a  pamphlet  tending  to  a  similar  end. 
But  these  scruples  seem  to  have  been  short-lived.  With 
the  increase  of  wealth  and  luxury,  the  number  of  slaves 
increased  also.  There  were  in  Massachusetts  in  1754, 
as  appears  by  an  official  census,  twenty-vfour  hundred 
and  forty-eight  negro  slaves  over  sixteen  years  of  age, 
about  a  thousand  of  them  in  Boston — a  greater  propor- 
tion to  the  free  inhabitants  than  is  to  be  found  at  present 
in  the  city  of  Baltimore.  .  Connecticut  exceeded  Massa- 
chusetts in  the  ratio  of  its  slave  population,  and  Rhode 
Island  exceeded  Connecticut.  Newport,  grown  to  be 
the  second  commercial  town  in  New  England,  had  a 
proportion  of  slaves  larger  than  Boston.  The  harsh 
slave  laws  in  force  in  the  more  southern  colonies  were 
unknown,  however,  in  New  England.  Slaves  were  re- 
garded as  possessing  the  same  legal  rights  as  apprentices ; 
and  masters,  for  abuse  of  their  authority,  were  liable  to 
indictment.  Manumissions,  however/,  were  not  allowed 
except  upon  security  that  the  freed  slaves  should  not  be- 
come a  burden  to  the  parish. 

In  the  provinces  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  negro 
slaves  were  employed,  to  a  certain  extent,  not  only  as 
domestic  servants,  but  as  agricultural  laborers.  In  the 
city  of  New  York  they  constituted  a  sixth  part  of  the 
population.  The  slave  code  of  that  province  was  hardly 
less  harsh  than  that  of  Virginia. 


420  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  '  .In  Pennsylvania   the   number   of  slaves  was   small, 

XXV 

'  partly  owing  to  the  ample  supply  of  indented  white  serv- 
1750.  ants,  but  partly,  also,  to  scruples  of  conscience  on  the 
part  of  the  Quakers.  In  the  early  days  of  the  province, 
in  1688,  some  German  Quakers^  shortly  after  their  ar- 
rival, had  expressed  the  opinion  that  slavery  was  not 
morally  lawful.  George  Keith  had  borne  a  similar  tes- 
timony;  but  he  was  disowned  as  schismatic,  and  present- 
ly abandoning  the  society,  was  denounced  as  a  renegade. 
When  Penn,  in  1699,  had  proposed  to  provide  by  law 
for  the  marriage,  religious  instruction,  and  kind  treat- 
ment of  slaves,  he  met  with  no  response  from  the  Quaker 
Legislature.  In  1712,  to  a  petition  in  favor  of  emanci- 
pating the  negroes,  the  Assembly  replied,  "  that  it  was 
neither  just  nor  convenient  to  set  them  at  liberty. "  They 
imposed,^  however,  a  heavy  duty,  in  effect  prohibitory,  and 
intended  to  be  so,  on  the  importation  of  negroes.  This 
act,  as  we  have  seen,  was  negatived  by  the  crown.  The 
policy,  however,  was  persevered  in.  New  acts,  passed 
from  time  to  time,  restricted  importations  by  a  duty  first 
of  five,  but  lately  reduced  to  two  pounds  per  head.  The 
Quaker  testimony  against  slavery  was  renewed  by  Sand- 
iford  and  Lay,  who  brought  with  them  to  Pennsylvania 
a  strong  detestation  of  the  system  of  servitude  which 
they  had  seen  in  Barbadoes  in  all  its  rigors.  The  same 
views  began  presently  to  be  perseveringly  advocated  by 
Woolman  and  Benezet,  whose  labors  were  riot  without 
effect  upon  the  Quakers,  some  of  whom  set  the  example 
of  emancipating  their  slaves.  Franklin  was  also  distin- 
guished as  an  early  and  decided  advocate  for  emancipa- 
tion. The,  greater  part  of  the  slaves  of  Pennsylvania  were 
to  be  found  in  Philadelphia.  A  fourth  part  of  the  inhab- 
itants ,of  that  city  were  persons  of  African  descent,  in- 
cluding many,  however,  who  had  obtained  their  freedom. 


SLAVERY  AND  THE   S-liAVE  TRADE.  421 

In  the  tobacco  growing  colonies,  Maryland,  Virginia,  CHAPTER 
and  North  Carolina,-  slaves  constituted  a  third  .part  or  «_^__ 
more  of  the  population.     In  South  Caroliria,  where  rice  1750. 
was  the  principal  .produce,  they  were  still  more  numer- 
ous, decidedly  outnumbering  the  free  inhabitants. 

The  slave  code  of  South  Carolina,  as  revised  and  re- 
enacted  in  a  statute  still  regarded  as  having  the  force  of 
law,  had  dropped  from  its  phraseology  something  of  the 
extreme  harshness  of  the  former  act.  It  contained,  'also,  , 
some  provisions  for  the  benefit  of  the  slaves,  but,  on  the 
whole,  was  harder  than  before.  "  Whereas,"  says  the 
preamble  to  this  act,  "  in  his  majesty's  plantations  in  1740. 
America,  slavery  has  been  introduced  and  allowed,  and 
the  people  commonly  called  negroes,  Indians,  mulattoes, 
and  mestizoes  have  been  deemed  absolute  slaves,  and 
the  subjects  of  property  in  the  hands  of  particular  per- 
sons, the  extent  of  whose  power  over  such  slaves  ought 
to  be  settled  and  limited  by  positive  laws,  so  that  the 
slaves  may  be  kept  in  due  subjection  and  obedience,  and 
the  owners  and  other  persons  having  the  care  and  govern- 
ment of  slaves  may  be  restrained  from  exercising  too  great , 
rigor  and  cruelty  over  them,  and  that  the  public  pe2i.ce 
and  order  of  this  province  may  be  preserved,"  it  is  there- 
fore enacted  that  "  all  negroes,  Indians,  mulattoes,  and 
mestizoes  (free  Indians  in  amity  with  this  government, 
and  negroes,  mulattoes,  and  mestizoes  who  are  now  free 
excepted),  who  now  are  or  shall  hereafter  be  4n  this 
province,  and  all  their  issue  and  offspring  born  and  to  be 
born,  shall  be,  and  they  are  hereby  declared  to  be  and  re- 
main forever  hereafter  absolute  slaves,  and  shall  follow 
the  condition  of  the  mother,  and  shall  be  claimed,  held, 
taken,  reputed,  and  adjudged  in  law  to  be  chattels  per- 
sonal." This  provision,  which  deprives  the  master  of  the 
power  of  manumission,  and  subjects  to  slavery  the  de- 


422  HISTORY'  OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  scendant  of  every  slave  woman,  .no  matter  How  many  de- 
•  .  grees  removed,  nor  who-  may  have  been  the  male  ances- 
tor, nor  what  the  color,  was  subsequently  adopted  in  the 
s'ame  terms  by  the  Georgia  Legislature  as  the  law  of 
tha,t  province.  A  suit  for  freedom  might  be  brought  by 
any  -white  man  who  chose  to  volunteer  for  that  purpose 
on  behalf  of  any  person  claimed  as  a  slave.  But,  in 
all  such  suits,  "  the  burden  of  proof  shall  lay  upon  the 
plaintiff  and  it  shall  always  be  presumed  that  every  ne- 
gro, Indian,  mulatto,  and  mestizo  is  a  slave  unless  the 
contrary  can  be  made  to  appear,  the  Indians  in  amity 
with  this  government  excepted,  in  which  case  the  burden 
of  proof  shall  lie  on  the  defendant."  Masters  were  for- 
bidden to  allow  their  slaves  to  hire  their  own  time;  to 
let  ^  or  hire  any  plantation  ;  to  possess  any  vessel  or  boat ; 
to  keep  or  raise  any  horses,  cattle,  or  hogs ;  to  engage 
in  any  sort  of  trade  on  their  own  account ;  to  be  taught 
to  write ;  or  to  have  or  wear  any  apparel  (except  livery 
servants)  "finer  than  negro  cloth,  duffils,  kerseys,  osna- 
burgs,  blue  linen,  check  linen,  or  coarse  garlix  or  calicoes, 
checked  cotton  or  Scotch  plaid;"  and  any  constable  see- 
ing any  negro  better  clad,  might  seize  the  clothes  and 
appropriate  them  to  his  own  use.  It  was  forbidden  to 
work  slaves  on  Sundays,  under  a  penalty  of  five  pounds  ; 
for  working  them  more  than  fifteen  hours  daily  in  sum- 
mer, and  fourteen  in  winter,  a  like  penalty  was  imposed. 
Upon  complaint  to  any  justice  that  any  master  does  not 
provide  his  slaves  with  sufficient  "  clothing,  covering,  or 
food,"  the  justice  might  make  such  order  in  the  premises 
as  he  saw  fit,  and  fine  the  master  not  exceeding  d£20. 
u  And  whereas  cruelty  is  not  only  highly  unbecoming 
those  who  profess  themselves  Christians,  but  odious  in 
the  eyes  of  all  men  who  have  any  sense  of  virtue  and 
humanity,"  the  fine  for  the  willful  murder  of  a  slave 


SLAVERY  AND  THE   SLAVE  TRADE.  423 

was  increased  to  £700  currency,  with  incapacity  to  hold  CHAPTER 

any  office  6ivil  or  military,  and  in  case  of  inability  to 

pay  the  fin,e,  seven  years'  labor  in  a  frontier  garrison  or  1750. 
the  Charleston  work-house.  For  killing  a  slave  in  the 
heat  of  passion,,  for  maiming,  or  inflicting  any  other  cruel 
punishment  "other  than  by  whipping  or  beating  with  a 
horsewhip,  cowskin,  switch,  or  small  stick,  or  by  put- 
ting in  irons  or  imprisonment,"  a  fine  of  £350  was 
imposed  ;  and  in  case  of  slaves  found  dead,  maimed, 
or  otherwise  cruelly  punished,  the  masters  were  to  be 
held  guilty  of  the  act  unless  they  make  the  contrary  ap- 
pear. 

No  statute  of  North  Carolina  seems  ever  to  have  de- 
clared who  were  or  might  be  held  as  slaves  in  that  prov- 
ince, the  whole 'system  being  left  to  rest  on  usage  or  the 
supposed  law  of  England.  But  police  laws  for  the  reg- 
ulation of  slaves  were  enacted  similar  to  those  of  Virgin- 
ia, and  the  Virginia  prohibition  was  also  adopted  of  man-  1741. 
umissions,  except  for  meritorious  services,  to  be  adjudged 
by  the  governor  and  council. 

Among  the  ten  acts  of  the  late  Virginia -revision  re- 
jected by  the  king  was  one  "concerning  servants  and  1751. 
slaves,"  a  consolidation  and  re-enactment  of  all  the  old 
statutes  on  that  subject,  the  substance  of  which  has 
been  given  in  former  chapters.  It  appears  from  the  ad- 
dress, already  quoted,  of  the  Assembly  to  the  king  on  1752. 
the  subject  of  this  veto,  to  have  been  a  standing  instruc- 
tion to  the  governor  not  to  consent  to  the  re-enactment 
of  any  law  once  rejected  by  the  king,  without  express 
leave  first  obtained  upon  representation  of  the  reasons 
and  necessity  for  it.  Such  a  representation  was  accord- 
ingly made  by  the  Assembly  as  to  eight  of  the  ten  re- 
jected laws.  The  act  concerning  servants  and  slaves 
was  not  of  this  number,  yet  we  find  it  re-enacted  "within  1753. 


424  HISTORY    Of1    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  a.  year  after  in  the  very  same  words.     Why  the  royal 
'        assent  had  .been  refused  does  not  appear.     It  could  hardly 

1750.  have  been  from  any  scruples  on  the  subject  of  slavery  ; 
for  among  the  acts.-  expressly  approved  was  one  "  for  the 
better  government  of  Indians,  negroes,  and  mulattoes," 
which  provided  that  the.  death  of  a  slave  under  extremity 
of  correction  should  not  be  -esteemed  murder,  unless  it 
were  proved  by  the  oath  of  at  least  one  "lawful  and  cred- 
ible witness"  that  the  slaye  was  willfully  and  maliciously 
killed ;  persons  indicted  for  the  murder  of  a  slave,  and 
found  guilty  of  .manslaughter  only,  to  "incur  no  forfeit- 
ure or  punishment."  Slaves  set  free  without  leave  from 
the  governor  and  council  might  be  sold  at  public  auction 
by  the  church-wardens  of  any  parish  in  which  such  freed 
slave  might  reside  for  the  space  of  a  month.  The  same 
statute  also  continued  the  authority  formerly  given  to 
the  county  courts  to  ^  dismember"  disorderly  slaves 
"  notoriously  guilty  of  going  abroad  in  the  night,  or  run- 
ning away  and  lying  out,"  and  not  to  be  reclaimed  by 
the  common  methods — an  authority  very  much  abused, 

1769.  if  we  may  judge  by  a  subsequent  statute,  which  declares 
this  dismembering  "  to  be  .often  disproportioned  to  the 
offense,  and  contrary  to  the  principles  of  humanity,"  and 
prohibits  the  castration  of  slaves  except  on  conviction  of 
an  attempt  to  ravish  a  white  woman. 

The  negroes  imported  from  the  African  coast,  whose 
descendants  now  constitute  a  sixth  part  of  the  popula- 
tion of,  the  United  States,  were  not  by  any  means  of 
one  nation,  language,  or  race.  A  single  slave  ship  often 
brought  to  America  a  great  variety  of  languages  and 
customs,  a  collection  of  unfortunate  strangers  to  each 
other,  or  perhaps  of  hereditary  enemies,  with  no  common 
bond  except  that  of  servitude.  Hence  a  want  of  union 
and  sympathy  among  the  slaves,  which,  joined  to  their 


SLAVERY  AND   THE   SLAVE   TRADE.  435 

extreme  ignorance  and  simplicity,  prevented  co-operation,  CHAPTER 

XXV. 

and  rendered  it  easy  to  suppress  such  outbreaks  as  oc- 

casionally  occurred.  Even  in  complexion  and  .physiog-  1750. 
nomy,  the  most  obvious  characteristic  of  the  negroes, 
there  were  great  differences.  Some  were  of  a  jet  black, 
often  with  features  approaching  the  European  standard; 
others  of  a  mahogany  or  reddish  black,  with  features  less 
shapely  and  regular  ;  and  others  yet  of  a  tawny  yellow, 
with  flat  noses  and  projecting  jaws — an  ugliness  often,  - 
but  erroneously,  esteemed  characteristic  of  all  the  Afri- 
can races,  but  which  seems  to  have  been  principally  con- 
fined to  the  low  and  swampy  grounds  about  the  Delta 
of  the  Niger.  The  negroes  marked  by  these  shapeless 
features  were  noted  also  for  indomitable  capacity  of  en- 
durance, and  were  esteemed,  therefore,  the  best  slaves. 
Intermixture  among  themselves,  and  a  large  infusion  of 
European  blood,  have  gradually  obliterated  these  differ- 
ences, or  made  them  less  noticeable. 

Contrary  to  what  happened  in  the  West  Indies,  in  the 
Anglo-North  American  provinces  the  natural  increase^  of 
the  slave  population  was  rapid.  The  women  were  seldom 
put  to  the  severer  labors  of  the  field.  The  long  winter 
secured  to  both  sexes  a  season  of  comparative  rest.  Such 
was  the  abundance  of  provisions,  that  it  was  cheaper  to 
breed  than  to  buy  slaves.  Those  born  in  America,  and 
reared  up  on  the  plantations,  evidently  surpassed  the  im- 
ported Africans  both  physically  and  intellectually.  Of  ' 
the  imported  slaves  a  few  were  Mohammedans,  among 
whom  were  occasionally  found  persons  of  some  educa- 
tion, who  knew  Arabic,  and  could  read  the  Koran.  But 
the  great  mass  were  pagans,  in  a  condition  of  gross  bar- 
barism. They  brought  with  them  from  Africa  many  su- 
perstitions, but  these,  for  the  most  part,  as  well  as  the 
negro  languages,  very  soon  died  out. 


4-26  HISTORY   QF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER       Zealous  for  religion  as  the  colonists  were,  very  little 

*  nr* 

.      effort  was  made  to  convert  the  negroes,  owing  partly,  at 

1750.  least,  to  a  prevalent  opinion  that  neither  Christian  broth- 
erhobcT  nor  the  law  of  England  would  justify  the  holding 
Christians  as  slaves.  Nor  could  repeated  colonial  enact- 
ments to  the  contrary  entirely  root  out  this  idea,  for  it 
was  not  supposed  that  a  colonial  statute  could  set  aside 
sthe  law  of  England.,  What,  precisely,  the  English  law 
might  be  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  still  remained  a  mat- 
ter of  doubt.  Lord  Holt  had  expressed  the  opinion,  as 
quoted  in  a  previous  chapter,  that  slavery  was  a  condi- 
tion unknown  to  English  law,  and  that  every  person  set- 
ting foot  in  England  thereby,. became  free.  American 
planters,  on  their  visits  to  England,  accompanied  by  their 
slaves,  seem  to  have  been  annoyed  by  claims  of  freedom 
set  up  on  this  ground,  and  that,  also,  of  baptism.  To 
relieve  their  embarrassments,  the  merchants  concerned  in 
1729.  the  American  trade  had  obtained  a  written  opinion  from 
Yorke  and  Talbot,  the  attorney  and  solicitor  general  of 
that  day.  According  to  this  opinion,  which  passed,  for 
more  than  forty  years  as  good  law,  not  only  was  bap- 
tism no  bar  to  slavery,  but  negro  slaves  might  be  held 
in  England  just  as  well  as  in  the  colonies.  The  two 
lawyers  by  whom  this  opinion  was  given,  rose  afterward, 
•one  of  them  to  be  chief  justice  of  England,  and  both  to 
be  chancellors.  Yorke,  sitting  in  the  latter  capacity 
1749.  with  the  title  of  Lord  Hardwicke,  had  recently  recog- 
nized the  doctrine  of  that  opinion  as  sound  law.  (Pearce 
vs.  Lisle,  Ambler,  76.)  He  objects  to  Lord  Holt's  doc- 
trine of  freedom,  secured  by  setting  foot  on  English  soil, 
that  no  reason  could  be  found  "  why  slaves  should  not 
'be  equally  free  when  they  set  foot  in  Jamaica  or  any 
other  English  plantation."  "  All  our  colonies  are  sub- 
ject to  the  laws  of  England,  although  as  to  some  purposes 


SLAVERY  AND  THE   SLAVE  TRADE.  4-27 

they  have  laws  of  tfceir  own.'!     His  argument  is,  that  if  CHAPTER 
slavery  be  contrary  to  English  law,  no  local  enactments          . 
in  the  colonies  could  give  it  any  validity.     To  avoid  over-  1750. 
turning  slavery  in  the  colonies,  it  was  absolutely  neces- 
sary to  uphold  it  in  England.     At  a  subsequent  period,' 
as  we  shall  presently  see,  the  la\v  of  England  was  defini- 
tively settled  in  favor  of  liberty,  the  extra-judicial  opin- 
ion of  Talbot  and  Hardwicke  being  set  aside  by  a  solemn 
decision  of  the  King's  Bench. 

The  remaining  exclusive  privileges  of  the  Royal  Afri- 
can Company  having  expired,  the  English  government 
undertook  to  maintain,  at  their  own  expense,  the  forts 
and  factories  on  the  African  coast ;  and  thus  the  slave 
trade  was  thrown  open  to  free  competition.  The  recent 
introduction  of  the  cultivation  of  coffee  into  the  West  In- 
dies, and  the  increasing  consumption  in  Europe  of  colo- 
nial produce,  gave  fresh  impulse  to  this  detestable  traffic, 
and  it  now  began  to  be  carried  on  to  an  extent  which 
soon  roused  against  it  the  indignant  humanity  of  ^an  en- 
lightened age.  The  West  Indies  were  the  chief  market ; 
but  the  imports  to  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  were  largely 
increased.  New  England  rum,  manufactured  at  New- 
port, was  profitably  exchanged  on  the  coast  of  Africa  for 
negroes,  to  be  sold  in  the  southern  colonies;  and  vessels 
sailed  on  the  same  business  from  Boston  and  New  York. 
The  trade,  however,  was  principally  carried  on  by  En- 
glish merchants  of  Bristol  and  Liverpool.- ,  Except  in 
Pennsylvania,  the  colonial  duties  levied  on  the  import  of 
slaves  were  intended  chiefly  for  revenue.  They  were 
classed  in  the  instructions  to  the  royal  governors  with 
duties  on  British  goods,  as  impediments  to  British  com- 
merce not  to  be  favored.  On  this  ground  several  of  these 
acts  received  the  royal  veto.  Yet  Virginia,  as  we  have 
seen,  was  allowed  to  impose  such  duties  as  she  pleased, 


428  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNltED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  on  the  sole  condition,  of  making  them  payable  by  the 

XXV. 

___^___  buyer. 

1750.  The  importation  of  indented  white  persons,  called 
"  servants,"  or  sometimes  "  redemptioners,"  in  distinc- 
tion from  the  negroes,  who  were  known  as  slaves,  was 
still  extensively  carried  on,  especially  in  the  middle  col- 
onies. The  colonial  enactments  for  keeping  these  serv- 
,  ants  in  order,  and  especially  for  preventing  them  from 
running  away,  were  often  very  harsh  and  severe.  They 
were  put,  for  the  most  part,  in  these  statutes,  on  the 
same  .level  with  the  slaves,  but  their  case  in  other  re- 
spects was  very  different.  In  all  the  colonies*  the  term 
of  indented  service,  .even  where  no  express  contract  had 
been  entered  into,  was  strictly  limited  by  law,  and,  ex- 
cept in' the  case  of  very  young  persons,  it  seldom  or 
never  exceeded  seven  years.  On  the  expiration  of  that 
term,  these  freed  servants  were  absorbed  into  the  mass 
of  white  inhabitants,  and  the  way  lay  open  before  them 
and  their  children  to  wealth  and  social  distinction.  One 
of  the  future  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
was  brought  to  Pennsylvania  as  a  redemptioner.  In 
Virginia,  -at  the  expiration  of  his  term  of  service,  every 
redemptioner,  in  common  with  other  immigrants  to  the 
colony,  was  entitled  to  a  free  grant  of  fifty  acres  of  land, 
and  in  all  tjhe  colonies  certain  allowances  of  clothing 
were  required  to  be  made  by  the  late  masters.  Poverty, 
however,  and  want  of  education  on  the  part  of  the  mass 
of  these  freed  men,  kept  them  too  often  in  a  subservient 
condition,  and  created  in  the  middle  as  well  as  in  the 
southern  colonies  an  inferior  order  of  poor  whites,  a  dis- 
tinction of  classes,  and  an  inequality  in  society  almost 
.unknown  in  republican  New  England. 

The  position  of  the  Africans  was  much  more  disas- 
trous.    Not  only  were  they  servants  for  life,  which  pos- 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  SLA.VE  TRADE.  429 

sibly  the  law  of  England  might  have  countenanced,  but  CHAPTER 
by  colonial  statute  and  usage  this  servitude  descended  .. 
to  their  children  also.  The  few  set  free  by  the  .good 
will  or  the  scruples  of  their  masters  deemed  a  standing 
reproach  to  slavery,  and  an  evil  example  in  the  eyes  of 
the  rest.  They  became  the  objects  of  a  suspicious  legis- 
lation, which  deprived  them  of  most  of  the  rights  .of  free- 
men, and  reduced  them  to  a  social  position  very  similar, 
in  many  respepts,  to  that  which  inveterate  prejudice  in 
many  parts  of  Europe  has  fixed  upon  the  Jews.  Hence, 
too,  legislative  restraints  on  the  bounty  ,or  justice  of  the 
master  in  manumitting  his  slave. 

Intermarriage  with  the  inferior  race,  whether  bond  or 
free,  was  prohibited  by  religion  as  a  sin,  by  public  opin- 
ion as  a  shame,  and  by  law  as  a  crime.  But  neither 
law,  Gospel,  nor  public  opinion  could  prevent  that  amal- 
gamation which,  according  to  all  experience,  inevit- 
ably and  extensively  takes  place  whenever  two  races 
come  into  that  close  juxtaposition  which  domestic  slav- 
ery of  necessity  implies.  Falsehood  and  hypocrisy  took 
the  place  of  restraint  and  self-denial.  The  Dutch,  French, 
Spanish,  and  Portuguese  colonists, ,  less  filled  with  pride 
of  race,  and  less  austere  and  pretending  in  their  religious 
morality,  esteemed  that  white  man  mean  ,ahd  cruel  who 
did  not,  so  far  as  his  ability  permitted,  secure  for  his 
colored  children  emancipation  and  some  pecuniary  pro- 
vision. Laws  Were  even,  found  necessary,  in  some  of 
those  colonies,  to  limit  what  was  esteemed  a  superfluity 
of  parental  tenderness.  In  the  Anglo-American  colonies 
colored  children  were  hardly  less  numerous.  But  con- 
ventional decorum,  more  potent  than  law,  forbade  any. 
recognition  by  the  father.  They  followed  the  condition 
of  the  mother.  They  were  born,  and  they  remained 
slaves.  European  blood  was  tljus  constantly  transferred 


430  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  into  servile  veins ;  and  hence,  among  the  slaves  sold  and 

XXV. 

bought  to-day  in  our  American  markets,  may  be  found 

the.'  descendants  of  men  distinguished  in  colonial  and 
national  annals. 

The  Duke  of  Newcastle,  after  four-and-twenty  years 
1748.  of  colonial  administration,  was  succeeded  at  last,  in  that 
superintendence  by  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  head  of  another 
of  those  great  Whig  families  by  which,  since  the  acces- 
'sipn  of  the  house  of  Hanover,  the  government  of  Great 
Britain  had  been  wholly  engrossed.  During  Newcastle's 
long  administration,  in  spite  of  the -vigilance  of  the  Board 
of  Trade,  to  whose  zeal  the  secretary  did  not  always  re- 
spond, tlie  colonial  Assemblies  had  greatly  strengthened 
themselves  against  the  royal  and  proprietary  governors. 
What  was  a  matter  6f  greater  importance,  in  America 
as  weir  as  in  England  the  idea  of  responsibility  to' public 
opinion  on  the  part  of  all  in  authority — -'of  the  Assem- 
blies as  well  as  of  the  executive  officers — had  made  very 
decided  progress. 

Separation  from  the  mother  country  seems  yet  not  to 
have  been  thought  of.  But  as  the  colonies  advanced  in 
wealth  and  commercial  enterprise,  they  grew  more  and 
more  restless  under  the  fetters  oh  their  trade  and  indus- 
try imposed  by  British  legislation.  Few  of  the  colonial 
merchants  felt  scruples  at  violating  those  restrictions, 
whenever  they  could  without  danger  of  detection.  The 
"  Molasses  Act"  especially  was  very  little  regarded.  Not- 
withstanding the  prohibition  of  the  export  of  provisions, 
a  very  profitable  trade,  even  during  the  war,  continued 
to  be  carried-  on  with  the  French  sugar  colonies  through 
the  medium  of  flags  of  truce,  granted  by  the  colonial 
governors  under  pretense  of  an  exchange  of  prisoners. 
As  facilities  for  this  trade,  the  neutral  Dutch  and  Danish 
islands,  St.  Eustatius  and  St.  Thomas,  became  thriving 


TRADE   OF  THE   COLONIES— COLONIAL  IRON. 


431 


marts  of  commerce.     By  the  same  channels,  in  spite  of  CHAPTER 

the  acts  of  navigation,  European  manufactures  found _ 

their  way  to  the  colonies.     By  way  of  standing  memo-  1748. 
rial  of  this  illegal  traffic,  Bollan,  previous  tb  his  appoint- 
ment as  agent  for  Massachusetts,  while  advocate  of  the 
Admiralty  at  Boston,  had  been  always  accustomed  to 
wear  a  coat  of  French  cloth.     These  and  other  obstacles 
to  parliamentary  authority  had  provoked,  just  at  the  close 
of  the  war,  a  new  attack  on  the  colonial  charters.     But  1749. 
the  bill  introduced  into  Parliament  was  zealously  op- 
posed, and,  like  so  many  others  of  the  same  sort,  was 
presently  abandoned. 

The  import  of  colonial  iron  into  England  had  been 
burdened  with  very  heavy  duties ;  but  those  duties  pro- 
duced an  effect  not  reckoned  upon  by  the  English  iron 
masters,  and  very  little  relished.  The  colonists,  thus 
deprived  of  a  market  for  their  pig  iron,  were  led  to  at- 
tempt the  manufacture  of  steel  and  bar  iron  for  domes- 
tic use.  The  production  of  British  iron  began  to  be 
limited  by  the  decrease  of  forests — the  use  of  fossil  coal, 
in  the  process  of  smelting,  not  being  yet  understood. 
Hence  a  change  in  the  policy  of  the  mother  country,,  by 
which  colonial  pig  iron  was  admitted  duty  free,  first  into  1750. 
London,  and  presently  into  the  rest  of  the  kingdom, 
while  the  establishment  in  the  colonies  of  slitting,  roll- 
ing, and  plaiting  mills,'  or  furnaces  for  the  manufacture 
of  steel,  was  prohibited,  all  new  ones  being  liable  to  de- 
struction as  "  nuisances."  By  a  late  act  of  Virginia  1748. 
for  the  encouragement  of  iron  works,  all  persons  so  em- 
ployed were  to  be  exempt  from  colony  taxes  for  seven 
years. 

Formal  complaints  were  presently  lodged  by  the  Brit- 
ish West  India  merchants  against  the  trade  carried  on 
from  the  North  American  colonies  to  the  foreign  West 


432  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  Indies,  particularly,  from  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Isl- 

l_and.      The  agents  for. these  colonies,  undertook  to  show, 

1751.  in  reply,  that  the  New  England  rum  manufactured  from 
the  molasses  thus  obtained 'was  the  mainstay  of  the 
trade  of  New  England,  being  an  article  absolutely  nec- 
essary for  the  timbermen,  mastmen,  Joggers,  and  fisher- 
men, without  which  they  could  not  endure  the  hardships 
of  their  business,  and  the  sale  of  it  in  the  other  colonies 
and  on  the  coast  of  Guinea  being  also  a  chief  means  of 
paying  for  imports  from  Great  Britain. 

The  value  of  the  exports  from  Great  Britain  to  North 
America  for  the  ten  years  from  1738  to  1748  was, 

To  New  England £  1,812,894  $8,049,26 1 

TpNewYorfc 1,211,243  5,377,920 

To  Pennsylvania .704,780  3,173,623 

To  Maryland'and  Virginia  ......     2,507,626  11,133,859 

To  the  Carolinas j...     1,245,091  5,528,203 

£7,481,634        $33,218,866 

being  an  annual  average  of  £748,163,  or  $3,221,886. 
The  imports  from  the  colonies  were  somewhat  less.  This 
deficit  of  exports  was  confined,  however,  tb  the  middle 
and  northern  colonies,  the  balance  being  paid  in  specie, 
the  produce  of  their  West  India  and  African  trade. 


CLAIMS  OF  THE  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH.       433 

''-'•"''  '  ' 


^CHAPTER    XXVI. 

COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE  FINAL  STRUGGLE  BETWEEN 
FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  FOR  THE  COUNTRY  ON  THE  GREAT 
LAKES  AND  THE  MISSISSIPPI.  FOUUTH  INTERCOLONIAL 
WAR. 

t    '  .  •.•''' 

DR.  THOMAS  WALKER,  of  the  council  of  Virginia,  CHAPTER 

XXVI. 

penetrating  through  the- mountainous  southeastern  regions  ' 

of  that  province,  had  reached  and  crossed  the  ridge  which  1747. 
separates  the  valley  of  the  Tennessee  from  the/head  wa- 
ters of  the  more  northerly  tributaries  of  the  Ohio.  Te 
that  ridge  he  gave  the  name  of  Cumberland  Mountains, 
after  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  of  the  English  blood  royal, 
just  then  very  famous  by  his  victory  over  the  Pretender 
at  Culloden.  The  name  of  Cumberland  was  also  given 
to  one  of  the  rivers  flowing  down  the  western  slope  of  that 
ridge.  A  more  northerly  stream,  called  by  Walker  the 
Louisa,  still  preserves  its  aboriginal  appellation  of  Ken- 
tucky, not,  however,  without,  conformity  to  the  English 
idiom  in  a  retraction  of  the  accent  from  the  last  t6  the 
second  syllable.  The  region  entered  by  Walker,  full  of 
abrupt  and  barren  mountains,  attracted  little  attention. 
The  country  about  the  head  of  the  Ohio  seemed,  much 
more  inviting. 

An  association  of  London  merchants  and  Virginia 
land  speculators,  known  as  the  Ohio  Company,  obtained 
in  England,  shortly  after- the  peace,  a  grant  of  six  hund- 
red thousand  acres  of  land  on  the  east  bank  of  that  river, 
with  exclusive  privileges  of  Indian  traffic— a  grant  es- 
teemed an  encroachment  by  tlje  French,  who  claimed  as 
H.— E  E 


434^  HISTORY   OF   THE. UNITED.  S''TATES. 

CHAPTER  theirs,  by  right  of  discovefy  and  occupation,  the  whole 
-        region  watered  by  the  tributaries  of  the  Mississippi.     A 
1749.  counter  claim,  indeed,  was  set  up  by  the  English,  in  the 
name  of  the  Six  Nations,  recognized  by  the  treaties  of 
Utrecht  and  Aix  la  Chapelle  as  under  British  protection, 
whose  empire,  it  was  pretended,  had  formerly  been  car- 
ried by  conquest  over  the  whole  eastern  portion  of  the 
Mississippi.  Valley,  and:  the   basin,   also,    of  the  lower 
lakes.     Jn "  maintenance,  of  these  pretensions,  Colden's 
.  "  History  of  the  Five  Nations"  had  recently  been  pub- 
lished.     The  French,  in  reply,  pointed  to  their  posts, 
many  of  them  of  considerable  antiquity,  more  than  sixty 
in  number,  along  the  great  lakes  and  the  waters  of  the 
Mississippi.      The  missions  had  declined,  but  the  Indian 
trade  continued  to  flourish.      At  the  principal  posts  were 
regular  garrisons-,  relieved  once  in  six  years.      Such  of 
the  disbanded  soldiers  as  chose  to  remain,  besides  a  grant 
of  land,  received  a  cow  and  calf,  a  cock  and  five  hens,  an 
ax,  a  hoe,  a  gun,  with  powder  and  shot,  grain  for  seed, 
and  rations  for  three  years.      Wives  were  sent  out  to 
them  from  France,  or  they  intermarried  with  the  Indians. 
The  boats  from  the  Illinois  country,  descending  annually  to 
New  Orleans,  carried  flour,  Indian  corn,  bacon,  both  of  hog 
and  bear,  beef  and  pork,  buffalo  robes,  hides  and  tallow. 
The  downward  Voyage  was  made  in  December ;  in  Feb- 
ruary the  boat  returned  with  European  goods  for  con- 
sumption and  Indian  traffic.      The  Indians  northwest  of 
the  Ohio,  including  the  remains  of  the  tribes  whom  the 
Iroquois  had  formerly  driven  from  their  homes  on  the 
Ottawa,  the  Hurons  or  Wyandots,  thevMiamis,  the  Illi- 
nois, allrejoiced  in  the  alliance,  or  recognized  the  authori- 
ty of  the  French.     As  respected  the  country  on  the  upper 
lakes,  the  Mississippi,  the  Illinois,  arid  the  Wabash,  the 
French  title,  according  to  European  usage,  was  complete. 


CLAIMS  OF  THE  FRENCH  AND  ENG.LISH.    435 

The  country  immediately  south  of  Lake  Erie,  cover-  CHAPTER 
ed  with  dense,  -forests  and  with  few  Indian  inhabitants,  ' 

had  hitherto,  in  a  great  measure,  been  neglected.  But 
the  Count  De  la.  Galissonriiere,  shortly  after  assuming 
office  as  governor  general,  had  sent  J)e  Celeron^with  three  1748. 
hundred  men,  to  traverse  the  country  from  Detroit  east 
to  the  mountains,  to  bury  at  the  most  important  points 
leaden  plates  with  the  arms  of  France  engraved,  to  take 
possession  with  a  formal  process  verbal,  and  to  warn  the 
English  traders  out  of  the  country. 

To  secure  Nova  Scotia,  to  guard  the  commerce  and 
fisheries  of  New  England,  and  to  offset  the  restored  for- 
tress of  Louisburg,  the  British  government  hastened  to 
establish  at  Chebucto  the  military  colony. and  fort  of  1749. 
Halifax,  so  called  after  the  president  of  the  Board  of 
Trade,  who  took  a  great  interest  in  its  establishment. 
During  the  next  ,  twenty  -five  years  this  fortress  cost 
Great  Britain  not  less  than  three  millions  of  dollars — a 
striking  instance  of  the  expenses  of  modern  warlike  prep- 
arations, equivalent,  in  fact,  to  a  perpetual  war. 

Admiral  De  la  Jonquiere  having  entered  upon  the 
government  of  New  France,  his  predecessor,  De  la  G-alis- 
sonniere,  proceeded  to  Paris  as  one  of  the  boundary  com- 
missioners under  the  late  treaty.  In  two  thick  quarto 
volumes  of  protocols,  these  commissioners  vainly  at- 
tempted to  settle  what  had  been  meant  in  the  treaty,  of 
Utrecht  by  the  "ancient  limits','  of  Acadie.  The  Eh-, 
glish  claimed  under  that  appellation  both  shores  of  the 
Bay  of  Fundy^ — indeed,  the  whple  region  east  of  the"  Pe- 
nobscot.  The  French,  on  the  other  hand,,  sought  to  re- 
Strict  the  cession  of  Acadie  to  the  peninsula  to  which 
the  name  of  Nova  Scotia  is  at  present  confined,  claiming 
the  north  shore  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy  as  a  part  of  Can- 
ada. Nor  did  they  satisfy  .themselves  with  protocols 


436  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


CHAPTER  only.    Troops  from  Canada  established  the  posts  of  Gas- 
_j; __pareau  dnd  Be'att  Sejouryat  the  narrowest  part  of  the 

1749.  isthmus^  between  ;the  waters  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy  and 
those  of  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence — a  vicinity  in  which 
was  planted  a  considerable  body  of  ancient  French  col- 
onists   still   warmly   attached   to   the   French  interest. 

-  Cornwallis,  governor  of  Nova  Scotia,  wrote  pressingly 
to  -  Massachusetts  for  aid.  Not  strong  enough  to  dis- 
lodge these  intruders,  he  caused  two  opposing  forts  to  be 
bijilt  at  Beau  Bassin  and  Minas.  A  third  post  was  also 
established  by  the  French  hear  the  mouth  of  the  St. 
John. 
•  Determined  also  to  strengthen  their  hold  on  the  dis- 

1750.  £uted  western  region,  the  French  enlarged  and  strength en- 
'eA  their  post  at  Niagara.      They  even  'obtained  leave  to 

build  a  fort  and  trading  house  on  the  bprders  of  the  Mo- 
hawk' country.  Alarmed  for  the  fidelity  of  the  Six  Na- 
tions, who  never  had  recognized  the  claim  of  English  do- 
minion, Clinton,  governor  of  New  York,  proposed  a  new 
treaty,  .in  which  he  invited  all  the  colonies  to  participate. 

1751.  Only  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  South  Carolina 
cljiose  to  incur  the  expense.      The  French  built  vessels 
of  unusual  force  at  Fort  Frontenac.      They  entered  into 
friendly  relations  with   those   bands  of  Delawares  'and 
Shawanese  whom  th&  pressure  of  new  settlements  in 
Pennsylvania  'had  lately  driven  from  the  Susquehanna 
toward  the  'Ohio,   and  to  whom  the  operations  of  the 
Ohio  Company,  in  the  Establishment  of  a  post  and  trad- 
ing house  at  Redstone,  now  Brownsville,  on  the  Mo- 

1752.  nongahela,-  had  given  great  offense.  The  Marquis  Du 
•Qiiesne,  Jonquiere's  successor  as  governor  general,  fol- 
lowed up  "the  same  policy,  A  band  of  the  Miatnis,  or 
Twigties,  as  the  English  called  them,  settled  at  Sandus- 
ky,  having  refused  to  remove  to  Detroit,  and  persisting  in 


CLAIMS  OF  THE  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH.    437 

trade  with  the  English,  their  village  was  burned.      The  CHAPTER 

English  traders  were  seized,  and  their  merchandise  con- L 

fiscated.  Early  the  next  year,  twelve  hundred  .men  1753. 
from  Montreal  built  a  fort  at  Presque  Isle ,  now  ,Erie$ 
on  the  southern  shore  of  the  lake  of  that  name.  Cross- 
ing thence  to  'the  waters  flowing  sputh,  they  established 
posts  at  La,  Sceuf  and  Venango,  the  one .  on  French 
Creek,  the  other  oft  the  /main  stream  of  the  Ailegany, 
which  meets  the  Monongahela  flowing  north,  and  unites 
with  it  to  form  the  Ohio.  ..„• 

The  Board  of  Trade  reported  to  the  king  that,  "as 
the  French  had  not  the  least  pretense  of  right  to  the  ter- 
ritory on  the  Ohio,  an  important  river  rising  in  Pennsyl- 
vania and  running  through  Virginia,  it  was  matter  of 
wonder  what  such  a  strange  expedition  in  time  of  peace 
could  mean,  unless  to>  complete  the  object  so  long  in  view 
of  conjoining  the   St.  Lawrence  "with  ,the  Mississippi." 
Lord  Holderness,  successor  to  the  Duke  of  Bedford  as 
secretary  of  state,  dispatched  orders  to  the  governors  of 
Pennsylvania  and  Virginia  to  repel  force  by  foi(ce  ("  when- 
ever the  French  were  found  within  the  undoubted  limits 
of  their  provinces."     After  remaining'  for  three  year/s  in  1749. 
the  hands  of  Thomas  Lee  and  Lewis  Burwell,  successive.  1750. 
presidents  of  the  council,  the  government  of  Virginia  had 
passed  to  Robert  Dinwiddie  as  lieutenant  governor,  a  1752. 
Scotsman   of  ability,   surveyor   general,  of  the   colonial 
customs,  and  previously  a  counselor,  but  jnot  possessed 
of  that  suavity  of  manners  for  which  Gouch,  his  prede- 
cessor, had  been  distinguished.     Observing  with  anxiety 
and  alarm  the  movements  of  the  French,  Dinwiddie  held  1753. 
a  treaty  with  the  Indian  bands  on  the  Monongahela,  from    Sept: 
whom  he  purchased  permission  to  build  a  fort  at  the 
junction  of  that  river  with  the  Allegany.      He  resolved, 
also,  to  send  a  message  to  the  ^nearest  French  post,  to  de- 


438  -HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED  S-TA'TBS. 

CHAPTER  mand  explanations,  and  the  release,  and  indemnification 
-•'-  of  the  captured  traders.  As  bearer  of  this  message  he 
1753.  selected  George  Washington,  a  native  of  Westmoreland 
county,  on  the  Potomac,  where  his  ancestors  had  been 
planters  for  three  generations*  The  paternal  inheritance, 
by  the  law  £f  primogeniture,,  having  passed  to  his  elder 
brother,  the  young  Washington,  a,  major  in  the  militia, 
followed, the,  lucrative  but  laborious  profession  of  a  land 
surveyor  in  the  Northern  Neck,  now  the  property  of 
Lord  Fairfax.  Though  not  yet  twenty-two,  already 
he- gave  evidence  of  that  rarest  of  combinations,  a  sound 
judgment,  with  courage,  enterprise,  and  capacity  for 
action.  .  .... 

After  a  dangerous  winter's  journey  of 'four  hundred 
miles,  with  only  four  or  five  attendants,  the  greater  part 
of  the  way  through  uninhabited  foresfs,  Washington 
reached  the  French  post  at  Venango,  where  he  was  re- 
ceived with  characteristic  politeness.  Joncaire,  the  com- 
mander, promised  to  transmit  Dinwiddie's  message  to  his 
superiors  in  Canada,  under  whose-  orders  he  acted ;  but 
the  French  officers,  over  their  cups,  made  no  secret  to 
Washington  of  the  intention  entertained  by  the  French 
government  permanently  to  occupy  all  that  country. 

During  Washington's  absence,  Dinwiddie  applied  to 
the  Assembly  for  funds.  But  he  found  that  body  in  very 
bad  humor.  With  the  consent  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  a 
fee  had  recently  been  imposed  on  the  issue  of  patents  for 
lands — a  practice  long  established  in  other  colonies,  but 
hitherto  unknown  in  Virginia.  The  House  of  Burgesses 
paid  no  attention  to  Dinwiddie's  complaint  of  French 
encroachments  and '  call  for  money.  Wholly  engrossed 
by  the  affair  of  the  obnoxious  fee,  they  resolved  that 
whosoever  paid  it  ought  to  be  regarded  as  betraying  the 
rights  of  the  people  ;  and  they  sent  to  England,  as  bearer 


CLAIMS   OF  THE  FRENCH    A.KLD  ENGLISH.        439 

of.  their  complaints,  Peyton  Randolph,, attorney  general  CHAPTER 
of  the  province,  twenty  years  after  president  of  the  Con- ________ 

tinental  Congress,  to  whom  they  voted  a  salary  of  ^£2000  1753. 
.out  of  the  provincial  funds  in  the  hands  of  the  speaker. 

Notwithstanding  this  disappointment,  Dinwiddie  en- 
listed a  captain's  command,  and  sent  them,  to  build  a 
fort  at  the  junction  of  the  Allegany  and  the  Mononga- 
hela.  The  western  boundary  of  Pennsylvania  was  not 
yet  run.  It  was  uncertain  whether  the  head  of  the  Ohio  '' 
fell  within  that  province ;  if  not,  it  was  claimed  as  ap- 
pertaining to  Virginia. 

As  soldiers  could  not  be  supported  without  money, 
Dinwiddie  called  on  .the  neighboring  colonies  for  aid,  1754. 
and  presently  again  summoned  the  Virginia  Assembly.     Jan. 
Washington  had  now  returned.      The   designs   of  the 
French  Were  obvious,  and  the  Assembly  granted  ^£10,000 
toward  the  defense  of  the  frontiers.     A  committee  of 
the  burgesses , was  appointed  to  act  in  concert  with  the 
governor  in  the,  expenditure  of  this  money — an  "en- 
croachment on  the  prerogative,"  to  which,  from  necessi- 
ty, Dinwiddie  reluctantly  submitted. 

Urged  by  Governor  Hamilton  to  take  measures  to 
withstand  the  intrusions  of  the  French,  the  Assembly  of 
Pennsylvania  offered  supplies  in  paper  money.  But  to  Feb. 
this  Hamilton,  -by  his  instructions,  could  not  assent,  at 
least  not  without  a  suspending  clause  of  reference  to 
England,  to  which  the  Assembly  would  not  agree. 

Again  urged  to  co-operate  with  Virginia,  the  Assem- 
bly passed  a  new  bill  for  paper  money  supplies,  which 
the  governor  again  rejected.  .  Some  members,  of  the  As-  May.  - 
sembly — -and  the  same  was  presently  the  case  in  New 
York — expressed  doubts  if  the  crown  actually,  had  any 
claim  to  the  territory  on  which  the  French  were  said  to 
be  encroaching.  Governor .  Grlen,  of  South  Carolina, 


440  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  doubted  too.      But  any  such  doubts  were  regarded  by 

XXVI  ' 

the  zealous  Dinwiddie  as  little  short  of  treason.     In  New 

1754.  York  also,  as  well  as  in  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania,  in- 
ternal disputes  distracted  attention  from  the  designs  of 
the  Ifrertoh,  Clinton  had  resigned,  .wearied  out  by  inef- 
fectual struggles  against  Delancey.,  who  had  been  joined, 
also,  by  Colden,  and  whom  .the  united  influence  of  Al- 
exander, Smith,  and' Johnson,  lately  raised  to  the  coun- 

x  1753.  6il,  was  not  sufficient  tp' overmatch.  His  successor,  Sir 
Sept.  Danvers  Osborne,  came  from  England  charged  to  re- 
buke the  Assembly,  and  to  re-establish  the  executive 
authority.  His  friends  had  obtained  for  him  this  ap- 
pointment, hoping  that  business  and  a  change  of  scene 
might  enable  him  to  throw  off'  a  fit  of  melancholy  Bunder 
which  he  was  laboring.  But  the  hopelessness  of  the 
task  he  had'  assumed  so  aggravated  his  disorder,  that, 
within  five  days  after  his  arrival;  he  committed  suicide. 
It  fell  to  Delancey,  as  lieutenant  governor,  to  which 
dignity  he  had  just  been  raised,  to  lay  Osborne's  instruc- 
tions before  the  Assembly.  An  address  to  the  king  and 
a  representation  to  the  Board  of  Trade  indignantly  de- 
nied the  imputations  of  turbulence  and  disloyalty;  but 
all  the  arts  of  Delancey  were  .exhausted  in  vain  to 
move- the  Assembly  frorn  their  policy  of  annual  votes. 
The  most  he  coulcl  obtain  was,  that  money,  once  voted 
should  be  drawn  out  of  the  treasury  on  the  order  of  the 
governor  and  council,  and  a  promise  not  to  interfere 
with  executive  matters. 

The  government  of  Maryland  had  recently  been  con- 
ferred on  Horatio  Sharpe,  a  military  officer;  but  a  quar- 
rel about  supplies,  similar  to  that  in  Pennsylvania^  pre- 
vented the  aid  which  Dinwiddie  had  asked. 

North  Carolina  alone,  of  all  the  colonies  applied  to,  re- 
sponded promptly  by  voting  a  regiment  of  four  hundred 


FOURTH   INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  44^ 

and  fifty  men.-    The  temporary  administration  of  that  CHAPTER 
province  was  held  by  Michael  Rowan  as  president  of  the  .    _     '. 
council,  who  availed  himself  of  this  opportunity  to  c'on-  1754. 
sent  to  a  new  issue  of  paper  rrioney.     -But  'these  North  March- 
Carolina  troops  proved  of  little  use.     By  the  time  they 
reached  Winchester  in  Virginia,  the,  greater  part  had 
disbanded  on  some  doubts  as  to  their  pay,  the  appropri- 
ation for  that  purpose  being  already  exhausted.    •  . 

A  regiment  of  six 'hundred  men  had  been  enlisted  in 
Virginia,  of  which  Frye  was  appointed  colonel,  and  Wash- 
ington lieutenant  colonel.  To  encourage  enlistment, 
Dinwiddie  promised  two  hundred  thousand  acres  of  land 
to  be  divided  among  the  officers  and  soldiers.  .Two  in- 
dependent companies  from, New  York  and  another  from 
South  Carolina  were  ordered  to  Virginia  to<  assist  in  the 
operations  against  the  French.  <• .  „> 

Thi||  Virginia  troops,  on  their  march  to  the  frontier, 
encountered  abundance  of  difficulties.  Very  little  dispo- 
sition was  shown  to  facilitate  their  progress.  •  It  was  only 
by  impressment  that  means  could  be  obtained  to  trans- 
port the  baggage  and  stores.  By  slow  and  toilsome  steps, 
the  troops  made  their  way  to  Will's  Creek,  on  the  Poto- 
mac, where  they  were  met  by  alarming  intelligence.  ,The 
French,  under  Contrecoeur>  had  descended  in  force  from 
Venango,  and,  having  sent  off  Dinwiddie's  soldiers,  who 
were  building  a  fort  at  the  head  of  the  Ohio,  they  had  them* 
selves  seized  that  important  spot  and  commenced  a  fort, 
whiclrthey  called  Du  Quesne,  after  the  governor  general. 

A  detachment  under  Washington,  hastily  sent  for- 
ward to  reconnoiter,  just  before  reaching  Redstone,,  at  a 
place  called  the  Great  Meadows,  encountered  a  French  May  28. 
party,  which  Washington  attacked  by  surprise,  and  whose 
commander,  Jumonville,  was  killed — the  first  blood  shed 
in  this  war.  fc$&aQti 


442  HISTORY    OF   THE, UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER ^     By  Frye's  death  the  chief  command  devolved  on  Wash- 

XXVI  i 

.ington.  He  was  soon,  joined  by  the  rest  of  the  troops, 
1754*  and,  having  erected  a  stockade  at  the  Great  Meadows, 
called  Fort  Necessity,;  pushed  on  toward  Du  Quesne. 
'fhe  approach  of  a  much  superior  force  under  M.  de  Vil- 
lier,  brother  of  Jurnonville,  obliged  him  to  fall  back  to 
Fort  Necessity.  His  troops  were  fatigued,  discouraged, 
Julys,  and  short  of  provisions ;  and,  after  a  day's  fighting,  he 
agreed  to  give  up  the  fort,  and  to  retire  with  his  arms 
and  baggage.  Washington  did  not  know  French ;  his 
interpreter,  a  Dutchman,  was  ignorant  or  treacherous, 
and  the  articles  of  capitulation  were  made  to  contain  an 
express  acknowledgment  of  the  "  assassination"  of  Ju- 
monville. Having  retired  to  Will's  Creek,  Washington's 
troops  assisted  in  the  erection  of  Fort  Cumberland,  which 
now  became  the  westernmost  English  post. 

At  the  .same  time  with  his  orders  to  Virginia  and 
Pennsylvania,  Holderness  had  addressed  a  circular  let- 
ter to  all  the  colonies,  proposing  a  convention  at  Albany 
of  committees  from  the  several  coloniaL Assemblies,  to  re- 
new the  treaty  with  the  Six  Nations,  whose  friendship, 
at  this  crisis,  was  of  great  importance.  Agreeably  to 
this  recommendation,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Mary- 
land^ and  the  four  New  England  colonies  appointed  corn- 
June,  mittees.  While  Washington  was  operating  toward  the 
Mohongahela,  this  convention  met,  and;  after  carefully 
settling  the  question  of  precedence,  organized  itself,  with 
Delancey,  of  New  York,  as  presiding  officer.  The  ill 
feeling  between  the  governor,  and  the  Assembly  of, Vir- 
ginia prevented  any  representation  from  that  colony, 

In  his  correspondence  with  the  Board  of  Trade,  Din- 
-widdie  had  insisted  on  the  necessity  t>f  an  act  of  Parlia- 
ment to  compel  the  colonies  to  contribute  to  the  common 
defense,  the  Assemblies  being  either  "  ignorant,  obsti- 


,., 


PROPOSED   COLONIAL  UNION.  443 

nate,  or  independent."     The  General  Court  of  Massa-  CHAPTER 

xx  VT 
chusetts  had  also  suggested  "  that  the  control  of  Indian 

affairs  be  put  under  such  general  direction  as  his  majes-  1754. 
ty  shall  judge  proper  ;,and  that  the  several  governments 
shall  be  obliged  to  bear  their  proportions  of  defending  his 
majesty's  territories  against  the  encroachments 'of  the 
French  and  the  incursions  of  the  Indians."  The  com- 
mittee from  Massachusetts  had  been  authorized  to  enter 
into  articles  of  union  and  confederation ;  and,  while!  the 
treaty  with  the  Indians  was  proceeding,  the  Convention 
was  invited  to  consider  whether  the  union  of  the  colonies 
for  mutual  defense  was  not,  under  existing  circumstan- 
ces, desirable. 

This  question  being  decided  in  the  affirmative,  a  com- 
mittee was  appointed,  of  one  delegate  from  each  colony, 
to  draw  up  a  plan  of  union.  ,  Such  a  plan,  sketched"  by 
Franklin,  who  sat  as  a  member  from  Pennsylvania,  was 
reported  by  the  committee,  and  adopted  by  the  Conven- 
tion, the  Connecticut  delegates  alone  dissenting.  It 
proposed  a  grand  council  of  forty- eight  members  :  seven 
from  Virginia ;  .seven  from  Massachusetts ;  six  from 
Pennsylvania ;  five  from  Connecticut ;  four  each  from 
New  York,  Maryland,  and  the  two  Carolinas ;  three 
from  New  Jersey ;  and  two  each  from  New  Hampshire 
and  Rhode  Island  ;  this  number  of  forty-eight  to  re- 
main fixed ;  no  colony  to  have  more  than  seven  nor  less 
than  two  members, ;  but  the  apportionment  within  those 
limits  to  vary  with  the  rates  of  contribution.  This  council 
was  to  undertake  the  defense  of  the  colonies  as  a  general 
charge,  to  apportion  quotas  of  men  and  money,  to  con- 
trol the  colonial  armies,  to  enact  ordinances  of  general 
interest*  and  to  provide  for  th'e  general  welfare.  It  was 
to  haVe  for  its  head  a  president  general,  appointed  by 
the  crown,  to  possess  a  negative  on  all  acts  of  the  coun- 


444 


HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


CHAPTER  oil,  and  to  have,  with  advice  of  the  council,  the  appoint- 

XXVI 

lament  of  all  military  officers,  and  the  entire  management 

1754.  of  Indian  affairs.  Civil  officers  were  to  be  'appointed  by 
th'§  Council,  with  the  consent  of  the  president.  Such 
was -the  first  official  suggestion  of  what  grew  afterward 
to  be  our  present  Federal,  Constitution.  It  can-  not, 
however,'  be  said  to  have  originated 'with  Franklin.  A 
very  similar  proposal  had  been  made  by  Coxe — the  same 
New  Jersey  speaker  whose  expulsion  Hunter  had  pro- 
cured-^-in  his  "  Corolana,"  originally  published  in  1722, 
and  a  second  edition  in  1741 ;  and  much  the  same  thing 
had  been  suggested  by  Perm  as  long  ago  as  1700. 

This  plan  of  union  seemed  to  the  colonial  Assemblies  to 
give  too  much  power  to  the  cr.own,  and  they  all  rejected 
it.  For  the  opposite  reason,  it  found  just  .as  little  favor 
with  the  Board  of  Trade.  They  had  already  suggested 
a  plan  of  their  own — a  Grand  Assembly  of  colonial  gov- 
ernors and  certain  select  members  of  the  colonial  coun- 
cils, with  power  to  draw  on  the  British  treasury,  the 
sums  thus  drawn  to  be  reimbursed  by  taxes  imposed  on 
the  colonies  by  act  of  Parliament.  This  suggestion  of 
parliamentary  taxation  proved  very  unpalatable  to  the 
(jplonists  j'  .and  Massachusetts  specially  instructed  her 
agent  ";tp  oppose  .every  thing,  that  shall  have  the  re- 
motest tendency -to  raise  a  revenue  in  America  for  any 
public  uses  or  services  of  government." 

Besides  these  affairs  of  general  interest,  the'  delegates 
to  the  Albany  Convention  from  Connecticut  and  Penn- 
sylvania had  matters  of  their  own  to  rnanage.  Connect- 
icut, like.  Massachusetts,  Virginia,  and  the  Carolinas, 
hady  by  its  charter,  a  nominal  extent,  westward  to >  the 
Pacific. .  Prior  occupancy  by  the  Dutch  and  a  settle- 
ment of  boundaries  had  created  an  exception  in  favor  of 
New  York  and  New  Jersey  •  but  all  the  country  west 


SUSQUEHANNA  COMPANY.  445 

of  the  Delaware,  within  the  same  parallels  of  latitude  CHAPTER  v 
with  Connecticut,  was  still  claimed  under  the  charter  _^_*_ 
as  a  part  of  that  province..  An  association,  called'  the  1754. 
"  Susquehanna  Company,"  with  the  consent  of  the  Con- 
necticut Assembly,  had  applied  in  'England  for  le'ave  to 
plant  a  new  colony  west  ,of  the  Delaware.  This  com- 
pany had  their  agents  at  the  Convention  at  Albany ; 
and  those  agents,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the  Penn- 
sylvanians,  succeeded  in  obtaining  from  the  Indians  pres* 
ent,  or  some  of  them,  the  cession  of  a  tract  on  the  east 
branch  of  the  Susquehanna,  afterward  famous  as  the 
Valley  of  Wyoming.  The  proprietaries  of  Pennsylvania 
claimed  this  tract  as  within  their  charter,  and  denouncqd 
this  Connecticut  purchase  as.  fraudulent  and  void.  In 
spite  of  this  .opposition,  preparations  were  made  for  a  set- 
tlement, which,  however,  for  the  present,  the  war 'de- 
layed. 

To  counteract  the>  projects  of  the  Stisquehanna  Cpm- 
pany ,  the  Pennsylvania  agents  at  the  same  Convention 
purchased  of  the  Six  Nations  for  £400  their  claim  to 
most  of  the  unceded  lands  of  that  province.  This  pur- 
chase, made .  without  the  privity  of  the  DeUwares  and 
other  bands,  by.  whom :  those  lands  were  actually  occu- 
pied, though  the  Six  Nations  claimed  a  Sort  of  feudal 
superiority  over  them,  added  new  discontents  on'  the  part 
of  the  Indians  to  others  already  existing.  Intrusive  set- 
tlers, with  little  regard  to  the  rights  of  thq  Indians,  or, 
indeed,  of  the  proprietaries,  penetrating ramong  the  "end- 
less mountains,"' as  the  chains  west' of  the  Blue  Ridge 
were  called,  were  already  squatting  along  the  banks  of 
the  Juniata  and  in  the  upper  valley  of  the  Delaware. 
Four  new  counties  had  been  lately  erected— Bucks  and 
Northampton  east  of  the^  Susquehanna,  and'  York  and 
Cumberland  west  of  it.  In  .point  of  population,  Penn- 


446  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED.  STATES. 

CHAPTER  sylVania  had  already  risen  to  hold  the  third  rank  among 
xxvi.   .  f 

.      the  colonies. 

1753 .  Having  returned  from  his  unavailing  mission  to  Paris, 
Aug.  7.  ghirTey  had  resumed  the  government  of  Massachusetts. 

But,  what  greatly  damaged  his  popularity  among  a  peo- 
ple so  hostile  to  the  French  an'd  to  all  popish  connec- 
tions^- he  brought  with  him  from  Paris  a  young  wife,  a 
French  woman  and  a  Catholic.  Perceiving  a  war  to  be 
approaching,  he  summoned  the  Eastern  Indians  to  re- 
new their,  treaties.  But  they  eagerly  availed  themselves 
of  this  new  ^opportunity  to  raise  the  hatchet.  For  the 
sixth  time  within  eighty  years,  luckily  destined  to  be 
the  last,  the  frontiers  of  New  England  again  suffered. 

1754.  The  General ,  Court  readily  voted  money  to  repel  these 
hostilities;  and,  as'  an  offset  to  a  reported  French  fort 
near  the  head  of  the  Chaudiere^while  Washington  was 

Aug.  fortifying  af  Will's  Creek — Shirley  built  Fort  Halifax, 
high  up  the  Kennebec.  Hardly  had  the  governor  re- 
turned from  the  eastward,  when  Hoosick  and  Stock- 
Sept,  bridge,  on  the  western  frontier,  were  assailed  by  an  In- 
dian war  party.  These  assailants  belonged  to  a  tribe 
largely  composed  of  descendants  of  refugees  driven  from 
Massachusetts  in  the  time  of  Philip's  war.  As  a  pro- 
tection to  that  frontier,  the  Stockbridge  tribe  was  taken 
into  pay. 

Maryland  and  New  York  voted  in  aid  of  Virginia,  the 
one  £6000,  the  other  £5000;  £10,000  were  also  re- 
"ceived  from  England,  whence,  came  a  commission  to 
Sharpe,  governor  of  Maryland,  as-  commander-in-chief  of 
the  forces  .to  be  employed  against  the  French;  Warm 
disputes  about  rank  and  precedence  had  already  arisen 
.between  the  Virginia  regimental .  officers  and  the  cap- 
tains of  the  independent  companies.  To  stop  this  dis- 
pute, Dinwiddie  had  dispensed  with  field  .officers,,  and 


FOU-RTH  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.-  447 

broken  the  Virginia  regiment  into  separate  companies- —  CHAPTER 
an  arrangement  which  had  driven  Washington  from  the  ____^_1. 
service.  1754'. 

The  pending  territorial  disputes  led  about  this  time 
to  the  publication  o.f  the  maps  of  Evans  and  Mitchell, 
the  first  embracing  the  middle  colonies,  the  other  the 
whole  of  North  America.  The  first  edition  o£  Mitchell's 
map  had  appeared  in  1749  ;  but  a  new  edition  was  now 
published,  with  improvements.  The  British  North  Amer- 
ican colonies  stretched  a  thousand  miles  along  the  At- 
lantic, but  their  extent  inland  was  very  limited.  Ac- 
cording to  a  return  made  to  the  Board  of  Trade,  the  pop- 
ulation amounted  to 

Whites *.. -.1,192,896 

Blacks 292,738 


Total . -....j... 1,485,634 

New  France,  on  the  other  hand,  had  scarcely  a  hund- 
red thousand  people,  scattered  over  a  vastly  wider  space, 
from  Cape  Breton  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  but 
mainly  collected  on  the  St.  Lawrence,  between  Quebec 
and  Montreal.  The  remote  situation  of  their  settle- 
ments, separated  from  the  English  by  uninhabited  forests 
and  unexplored  mountains,  the  very  dispersion  of  their 
force  over  so-  vast  a  space  gave  the  French  a  certain  se* 
curity,  while  the  whole  western  frontier  of  the  English, 
from  Maine  to  Ge'orgia,  lay  exposed  to  attack  by  the  In- 
dian tribes,  disgusted  by  constant  encroachments  on  their 
hunting  grounds,  and  ripe  and  ready  for  a  troublesome 
and  cruel  warfare.  There  were  kept  up  in  Canada,  for 
the  defense  of  the  province,  thirty-three  companies  of  reg- 
ular troops  of  about  fifty  men  each. 

.'The  loud  complaints  of  the  English  embassador  at 
Paris  were  met  by  protestations  esteemed  unmeaning  or 
insincere.  A  struggle  was  evidently  impending  in  Amer- 


448  HISTORY   Of  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  ica  greater  than  had  yet  been  known.  In  anticipation 
of  -approaching  hostilities,  a  general  order  gave  to  all 
17*55.  officers  commissioned  by  the  king  or  the  commander-in- 
ohief  precedence  over  such  as  had  only  colonial  commis- 
sions— an  order  which  created  great  disgust  and  occa- 
sioned much  trouble  \  in  America.  New  clauses  intro- 
duced into  the  ,annual  Mutiny  Act  subjected'  the  colo- 
,  nial  soldiers,  when  Acting  in  conjunction  with  regular 
troops,  to  the  rigid  rules  of  the  regular  service,  and  re- 
quired the  colonial  Assemblies  to  provide  quarters  and 
certain. enumerated  supplies  for  the  regular  troops  within 
Feb.  their  jurisdictions.  General  Braddock,  appointed  eom- 
mander-in-chief,  was  dispatched  to  the  Chesapeake  with 
two  British  regiments.  Two  regiments  of  a  thousand 
men  each,  to;  be  paid  by  the  crown,  one  Pepperell's,  the 
other  Shirley's,  were  ordered  to  oe  raised  and  officered 
in  New  England*  The  colonies  were  also  to  be  called 
upon  for  their  respective  quotas  of  colonial  levies.  As 
the  Quaker  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania  had  scruples 
about  raising  troops,  three  thousand  men  were  to  be  en- 
listed in  that  province  by  authority  of  the  crown. 
April  .  vAt  Alexandria,  on  the  Potomac,  Braddock  met  a  con- 
vention of  colonial  governors,  with  whom  he  settled  the 
plan-of  the  campaign.  He  undertook  to  march  in  per- 
son against  Fort  Du.Quesne,  and  to  expel  the,  French 
from  the  Ohio.  Shirley,  lately  promoted  to  the  rank  of 
major  general,  was  to  march  against  Niagara.  The 
capture  of  .Crown  Point,  already  planned  by  Shirley,  and 
fesolved  upon  by  Massachusetts,  was  intrusted  to  John- 
•  Json,  whose  ascendency  over  the  Six  Nations  had  lately 
procured  for  him  a  royal  appointment  as  general  super- 
intendent of  Indian  affairs^  with  the  sole  power  of  mak- 
ing treaties.  There  was.  already  on. foot  a  fourth  expe- 
dition, concerted  by  Shirley  and  Lawrence,  governor  of 


FOURTH  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  449 

Nova  Scotia,  for  the  capture  of  the  French  posts  near  CHAPTER 

•  XXVI 

the  head  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  and  the  expulsion  of  the L_ 

French  from  that  province.        .  1755. 

In  anticipation  of  Braddock's  arrival,  application  for 
troops  had  already  been  made  by  the  several  governors. 
Massachusetts  responded  with  zeal,  and  a  levy  was 
ordered  of  three  thousand  two  hundred  men.  The 
exportation  of  provisions,  except  to  other  British  colo- 
nies, and  any  correspondence  with  the  French,  were  pro- 
hibited ;  but  it  required  a  pretty  watchful  eye  to  put  a 
stop  to  this  commerce.  The  treasurer  was  authorized  to 
borrow  £50,000,  $166,666,  on  the  credit  of  taxes  to 
produce  that  sum  within  two  years.  This  method-  of 
providing  funds  proved  successful,  and  was  adhered  to 
during  the  war. 

Among  the  taxes  thus  imposed,  in  addition  to  the  usual 
property  tax,  was  an  excise  on  wines  and  spirituous  liquors. 
Every  family  was  required  to  give  an  account,  under  oathr 
of  the  quantity  annually  consumed.  This  clause— ^-in- 
deed, the  tax  itself — produced  a  great  excitement  among 
the  merchants,  especially  the  liquor  dealers,  who  declaim- 
ed against  the  inquisitorial  character  of  the  tax,  and 
sounded  the  praises  of  rum  as  a  necessary  of  life,  espe- 
cially on  the  frontiers,  where,  it  wag  said,  the  water  could 
not  be  drunk  without  it.  In  reference  to  this  tax,  Fowle, 
publisher  of  one  of  the  Boston  newspapers,  printed  a  sa- 
tirical pamphlet  against  the  General  Court,  in  consequence 
of  which  he  and  a  supposed  author  of  the  pamphlet  were 
imprisoned  for  contempt.  Fowle  brought  an  action  for 
damages,  but  was  cast  in  costs.  The  next  year  he  re- 
moved to  Portsmouth ,  and  established  there  the  .first 
newspaper  in  New  Hampshire.  .  Connecticut  also  obtain- 
ed at  this  time  its  first  newspaper.  The  towns  of  Boston, 
Salem,  and  Gloucester  appealed  against  the  excise  to  the 
II.— F  F 


450  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER 'Board  pf  Trade.     It  was  sustained,  however,  as  "a  mat- 

"Y"Y"\7T  ' 

l^ter  of  private  economy,  of  the  propriety  of  which  the 

1755.  General  Court  was  the  proper  judge."  s 

•New  Hampshire  voted  three  hundred  and  fifty  men. 
May.     and  issued  paper  money  to  support  them.      Similar  issues 
were  made  by  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  both  of 
which  furnished  contingents  to  Johnson's  army.    , 

Stephen  Hopkins,  afterward  a  signer  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  now  jchosen  governor  of  Rhode  Isl- 
and, held  that  office  while  the  war  /continued,  except  in 
1757,  when  Greene,  the  former  governor,  was  again -chos- 
en. In  Connecticut,  Law  had  been  succeeded  as  govern- 
or, in  1751)  by  Koger  Wolcott,  commander  of  the  Connec- 
ticut troops  at  the  capture  of  Louisburg  during  the  late 
war.  Bound  an  apprentice  at  the  age  of  twelve,  with- 
out ever  ^haying 'had  a  day's  .schooling,  Wolcott's  talent, 
energy,  and  perseverance  raised  him  through  a  long  suc- 
cession of  public  trusts^  After  holding  office  for  three 
years,  he  was  succeeded,  in  1754,  by  Thomas  Fitch,  who 
continued  governor,  by  annual  re-elections,  for  the  twelve 
years  ensuing.  .  Phineas  Lyman,  a  popular  lawyer,  was 
appointed  major  general  of  the  Connecticut  forces.  But 
when  the  provincials  and  regulars  acted  together,  no  co- 
lonial officers  were  recognized  of  a  higher  rank  than 
colonels. 

.The  Assembly  of  New  York  voted  £45,000  in  paper 
bills  for  erecting  fortifications  and  enlisting  eight  hund- 
red men.  They  ordered  barracks  to  be  built;  and 
though  they  made  no  appropriation  for  supplying  the* 
other  articles  required  by  the  Mutiny  .Act,  their  un- 
expected promptitude  and  liberality  were  highly  applaud- 
ed by  the  Board  of  Trade.  The  New  Jersey, Assembly, 
besides  providing  {or.  tha  subsistence  of  the  king's  troop* 
as  the  Mutiny  Act  required,  ordered  five  hundred  men 


FOURTH  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  45 \ 

to  be  raised/Sand,  to  pay  the  expense,  they  issued  £70,000  CHAPTER 

1   xxvi, 
oi  new  paper.  .    . 

If  the  zeal  and  energy  of  the  six  northern  colonies  sur- 
passed the  expectations  of  the  BoaM  of  Trade,  the  aid 
furnished  by  the  more  southern  provinces  was  compara- 
tively trifling.  Unable  to  manage;  the  'Assembly  of 
Pennsylvania,  Hamilton  had  resigned  the  office  of  dep-  1754. 
uty  governor  to  Robert  H.  Morris,  chief  justice  of  New 
Jersey,  wjiich  office  he  still  continued  to  hold- — an  adroit 
and  able  man,  son  of  that.  Lewis  Morris  so  conspicuous 
in  the  politics  of  New  Jersey  and  New  York.  The  As- 
sembly proposed  to  issue  £4Q,OQO  in  paper,  half  of  it  for 
the  use  of  the  crown,  to  be  redeemed  by  renewing  the 
excise  for  twelve  years.  Morris  was  ready  to  consent 
to  the  issue  \  but,  in  conformity  to  his  instructions,  he 
insisted  on  limiting  the  excise  to  five  years,  a  period 
sufficient  to  produce  the  means  of  redemption.  The  As- 
sembly was  resolved  to  have  the  excise  for  seven' years 
longer  at  their  sole  disposal.  An  acrimonious  contro- 
versy ensued,  in  which  Morris  on  the  'one  hand, '•  and 
Franklin 'on  the  other,  displayed  equal  acuteness  and  ob- 
stinacy: In  an  address  to  the  king,  the  Assembly  stig- 
matized the  proprietaries'  instructions  to  their,  deputy 
governor  as  the  principal,  if  not  the  sole  obstruction  to 
the  granting  of  £20,000  to  the  king's  use.  But  the 
Board  of  Trade  sided  with  the  proprietaries  ;  and,  after  a 
hearing  by  counsel,  they  pronounced  this  complaint 
wholly  unfounded.  Though  determined  not  to  yield  the 
point  in  dispute,  the  Assembly  was  anxious  to  avoid  the 
imputation  of  withholding  supplies.  »  They  had  the  ex- 
clusive control  of  an  annual  revenue  of  upward  of  £7000, 
the  produce  of  the  unexp'ired  Excise  Act ;  and  by  their 
own  sole  authority,  without  consulting  the  governor,  1755. 
they  issued,  on  the  credit  of  it,  £15,000  in  paper  money,  Apri1' 


452  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  of  which  they  appropriated  one  third  toward  Braddock's 

_  expedition,  and  the  other  two  thirds  toward  the  enter- 

1755.  prise  against  Crown  Point,     A  further  call  being  pres- 
ently made  for  cannon,  provisions,  and  stores  toward  the 
June,    occupancy  of  Fort  D,u  Quesne,  the  Assembly  voted  an- 
other paper-money  and  excise  lawj  which  the  governor  re- 
fused to  sanction. 

The  Assembly  of  Maryland  voted  toward  Braddock'& 
expedition  £10,000  in  paper,  to  be  redeemed  out  of  fines 
and  forfeitures.  But  the  fines  and  forfeitures  were 
claimed  as  a  part  of  the  personal  revenue  of  the  propri- 
etary ;  the  council  non-concurred,  and  the  appropriation 
thus  fell  to  the  ground. 

After  a  hearing  in  England,  the  Virginia  dispute 
about  fees  for  land  patents  had  been  compromised,  and, 
"  because  the  times  required  harmony  and  confidence," 
Dinwiddie  had  been  directed  to  restore  Randolph  to  his 
former  office  of  attorney  general.  But  feeling  on  this 
subject  did  not  immediately  subside,  a  dispute  being- 
still /kept  up  about  Randolph's  payment  as  agent.  The 
Assembly  voted,  however,  £20,000  toward  the  support 
of  the  colonial  levies ;  and,  in  anticipation  of  the  taxes 
imposed  to  meet  it,  authorized  the1  issue  of  treasury 
notes — the  first  paper'  money  of  Virginia. 

'As  further  aid  toward  "  repelling  the  encroachments 
of  the  French,"  North. Carolina  voted  £8000. ,  The  gov- 
ernment of  that  province  h^d  recently  been  given  to 
Arthur  Dobbs ;  and,  thankful  for  the  appointment  of  a 
ruler  of  "  known  abilities  and  good  character" — for  so 
the  Assembly  described  him— they  promised  to  "forget 
former  contests."  But  the  new  governor,  anxious  to  en- 
hance his  authority,  soon  became  involved  in  disputes 
with  the  Assembly,  whose  speaker,  Starkie,  he  stigma- 
tized ""  as  a  Republican  of  puritanic  humility,  but  un- 


GEORGIA  A  ROYAL  PRQVINCE.  453 

bounded  ambition."      Starkie  was  treasurer  as  well  as  CHAPTER 

•    i  XXVI 

speaker.     He  could  lend'  money  to  the  delegates;  and !_ 

his  influence  far  exceeded  that  of  a  governor  "  who  had  1755. 
not  the  power  of  rewarding  his  friends." 

In  South  Carolina,  as  in  Maryland,  the  proposed 
grant  of  supplies  was  defeated  by  a  violent  quarrel  be- 
tween Governor  Glen,  the  council,  and  the  Assembly, 
as  to  the  method  of  raising  them.  Georgia  was  yet  too 
weak  to  look  beyond  her  own  narrow  settlements. 

After  twenty  years'  efforts,  and  the  expenditure  of  par- 
liamentary grants  to  the  amount  of  more  than  $600>000, 
£130,600,  besides  £17,600  contributed  by  private  os- 
tentation or  charity,  when  the  trustees  surrendered  their  1752. 
rights  under  the  charter,  Georgia  contained  only  three  June- 
small  towns  and  some  scattered  plantations,  with  seven- 
teen hundred  white  inhabitants  and  four  hundred  ne- 
groes. The  total  value  of  the  exports  for  the  three 
years  preceding  had  hardly  amounted  to  $13,000.  The 
expectation  of  wine  and  drugs  had  been  totally  relin- 
quishedj  but  some  hopes  of  silk  were  still  entertained. 

Just  after  the  surrender  of  the  charter,  Georgia  re* 
ceived  an  important  accession.  The  people  of  Dorches- 
ter, in  South  Carolina — a  town  founded  some  fifty  years 
before  by  Puritan  emigrants  from  New  England,  and 
whose  inhabitants  still  preserved  their  original  church 
organization,  and  many  of  their  New  England  senti- 
ments— removed  in  a  body,  and  settled  on  the  River 
Midway,  intermediate  between  the  Savannah  and  the 
Altamaha. 

The  Board  of  Trade  having  reported  a  form  of  gov-  1754. 
ernment  for  Georgia,  John  Reynolds,  a  captain  in  the  March  5' 
navy,  arrived  soon  after  with  a  royal  commission  as  gov-  Oct.  29. 
ernor.     By  an  ordinance  of  the  governor  and  council,  a 
General  Court  of  two  judges  was  established,  with  juris- 


454  HISTORY  .OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  diction  in  all  criminal  matters,  and  in  all  civil  cases  also 
f    ahnvp.  the  value  of  40s.;  with  an  appeal  to. /the  governor 

1754.  and  eonincil  when  the  matter  in  dispute ,  amounted  to 
d£300,  and  if  it  exceeded  -£500  a  further  appeal  to  the 
lung  in  council.,     The -governor  was  to  act  as  chancellor 
and  Admiralty  judge.     Justices  of  the  peace  had  juris- 
diction in  all  cases  under  40s.  value.     All  offenses  com- 
mitted, by  slaves  were  to  be  tried  by  a  single  justice 
without  a  jury,  who  was  to  award  execution,  and  in 
capital  cases  to  'set  a  value  on  the  slave,  to  be  paid  out 
of -the  public  treasury. 

Reynolds'  was  able  to  give  the  Board  of  Trade  but  a 
•  discouraging  account  of  the  state  of  the  province.  In 
his  first  dispatch,  he  describes  the  town  of  Savannah  as 
containing ,"  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  houses,  all  wood- 
en ones,  very  small,  arid  mostly  old."  At  Frederica, 
'  late  the  rival  of  Savannah,  Reynold;?  found  « the  fortifi- 
cations entirely  decayed,  and  the  houses  falling  down." 

1755.  The  General  Assembly  presently  met,  composed  of 
Jan.  7.    nmeteen   delegates,  for  whqse  election   the   colony  had 

been  divided  into  three  districts.  The  delegates  were 
required  to  possess  five  hundred  acres  of  land.  Voters 
must  possess  fifty  acres,  but.  owners  of  town  lots  were 
presently  admitted  to  the.  same  privilege.  The  governor 
made  a  "  modest  -and  judicious  speech,"  to  which  the 
council  and  Assembly  replied  in  the  same  spirit.  But 
the  infant  government  was  soon  endangered  by  the-  mach- 
inations of  one  Edmund  Gray,  "  a  pretended  Quaker 
and  fugitive  from  justice  in  Virginia,"  who  got  a  "qual- 
ification" made  over  to  him,  and  procured  an  election  as 
a  representative  from  Augusta.  He  had  some  scheme 
for  engrossing  the  Indian  trade,  for  promoting  wln'ch  he 
was  ready,  it  was  said,  to  overturn  'the  existing  govern- 
ment. .  He  persuaded  five  other  members  to  join  in  at- 


•y- 


FOURTH   INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  455 

tempting  to  break  up  the  session  by  withdrawing  from  CHAPTER 

the  Assembly,  in  consequence  of 'which,  and  for.  signing _ 

what  the  Assembly  called  a  "  seditious  letter,"  Gray  1755. 
and  four  others  were  expelled.  Twelve  acts:  were  pass- 
ed, three  directed  against  the  late  disorganizes,  and  oth- 
ers for  training  the  militia,  laying  out  roads^  regulating 
fences,  erecting  a  market  at  Savannah,  keeping  up  the 
Light-house  at  Tybee  Island,  for  the  regulation  and  gov- 
ernment of  slaves,  ascertaining  the  rate  of  interest,  pro- 
viding for  the  support,  of  government,  and  issuing  a  paper 
loan  of  ;£  3  000  ;  but  this  last  act  was  disapproved  by  the 
Lords  of  Trade.  The  currency  of  Georgia  hitherto  had 
consisted  of  bills  of  exchange  in  small  sums,  payable  at 
sight,  drawn  on  the  trustees  in  London.  Prior  to 'their 
surrender,  these  bills  had  been  mostly  paid,  and  money 
was 'lodged  to  meet  those  outstanding  at  par— a  .rare -in- 
cident in  the. history  'of  colonial  paper  money,  . 

A  French  squadron  destined  for  America  was  known 
to  be  fitting  out  at  Brest,  on  board  of  which  Dieskaix 
presently  embarked  with  four  thousand  troops.  ,To  in- 
tercept "this  squadron,  Boscawen  was  sent  with  a  British 
fleet  to  cruise  on  the  banks  of  Newfoundland.  Suspect 
ing  some  such  scheme,  most  of  the  French  ships  entered 
the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  by  the  Straits  of  Belle  Isle, 
whence  they  proceeded  to  Quebec.  Others',  passing  Bos- 
cawen in  the  fog,,  landed  a  thousand  men  at  Louisburg;  May. 
Two  only  of  the  French  transports,  with  .eight  compa- 
nies on  board,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  English. 

In  consequence  of  this  attack,  the  French  embassador 
was  recalled  from  -London.  The  English  ministry  re- 
torted by  issuing  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal,  under 
which  a  great  number  of  valuable  merchant'  vessels  and 
not  less  than  seven  thousand  French  seamen  were  seized. 
The  French  complained  loudly  as  well  of  .these  aggres- 


456  HISTORY    OF'THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  sions  as  of  Washington's  attack  on  Jumonville.     The 

XXVI 

English,  in  excuse,  charged  the  French  with  invading 

1755.  Virginia  and  Nova  Scotia.  Hostilities  were  already 
flagrant,  but  neither  party  issued  as  yet  a  declaration 
of  war; 

While  Boscawen  was  still  cruising  off  Newfoundland, 
watching  for  the  French  fleet,  three  thousand  men  em- 
barked a,t  Boston  for  the"  Bay  of  Fundy.  These  troops, 
forming  a  regiment  -of  two  battalions,  were  led  by  John 
Winslow,  a  grea-t-grandson  of  Edward  Winslow,  one  of 
the  patriarchs  of  Plymouth  colony,  and  grandson  of  the 
commander  of  the  New  England  forces  at  the  great 
swamp  fight  'in  Philip's  war ;  himself,  during  the 
previous  war,  a  captain  in  Vernon's  West  India  expe- 
dition. It  was  principally  through  his  popularity  and 
influence  that  the  enlistments  had  been  procured.  He 
was  a  major  general  in  the  Massachusetts  militia,  but 
was  persuaded  on  this  occasion  to  accept  a  commission 
a&  lieutenant  colonel.  Arrived  at  Chignecto,  at  the  head 
of  the  bay,  Winslow's  forces  were  joined  by  Colonel 
Moncton,  with  three  hundred  British  regulars,  the  garri- 
son of  the  British  posts  in  that  neighborhood,  to  whom 
also  Shirley  had  given  a  Massachusetts  commission  with 
a  rank  higher  than  Winslow's.  Under  his  command, 
they  marched  against  the  French  forts  recently  estab* 
lished  on  the  two  shores  of  the  isthmus  at  Beau  Sejour 

June  16.  and  Gaspareau,  Taken  by  surprise,  these  forts  made 
but  Rifling  resistance.  The  fort  at  the  mouth  of  the 
St.  John's,  on-  the  approach  of  an  English  detachment, 
was  abandoned  and  burned.  The  expulsion  of  the  French 
troops  from  the  Bay  of  Fundy  had  been  accomplished 
without  difficulty.  But  what  was  to  be  done  with  the 
French  colonists,  amounting  now  to  some  twelve  or  fif- 
teen thousand,  settled  principally  in  three  detached  bod- 


FOURTH  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  457 

ies  about  Beau  Bassin,  •"  the  beautiful  basin"  of  Chig<-  CHAPTER 

XXVI. 

necto,  on  the  no  less  beautiful  basin  of  Minas — the  two 

divisions  into  which  the  upper  Bay  of  Fundy  divides  1755. 
— and  on  the  fertile  banks  of  the  basin  or  river  of  An- 
napolis. 

It  was  thirty  years  since  Nova  Scotia  had  become  ,a 
British  province ;  but  these  settlers,  who  had  more  than 
doubled  their  number  in  the  interval,  continued  still 
French,  not  in  language,  religion,  and  manners  only, 
but  also  in  attachments,  receiving  their  priests  from 
Canada,  and  always  ready  to  favor  any  movement  that 
tended  to  restore  them  to  their  ancient  allegiance.  By 
the  terms  granted  when  the  British  authorities  took 
possession  of  the  province,  they  were  excused  from  any 
obligation  to  bear  arms  against  France,  and  were  thence 
known  as  "  French  neutrals."  But  they  did  not  act  up 
even  to  that  character.  Three  hundred  of  their  young 
men  had  been  taken  in  arms  at  the  surrender  of  Beau 
Sejour,  and  one  of  their  priests  had  been  actively  em- 
ployed as  a  French  agent.  To  curb  these  hostile  peo- 
ple would  require  several  expensive  garrisons.  If  order- 
ed to  quit  the  country,  and  allowed  to  go  where  they 
pleased,  they  would  retire  to  Canada  and  Cape  Breton, 
and  strengthen  the  enemy  there.  To  devise  some  scheme 
adequate  to  this  emergency,  Lawrence,  lieutenant  gov- 
ernor of  Nova  Scotia,  consulted  with  Boscawen  and  Mos- 
tyn,  commanders  of  the  British  fleet,  which  had  just  ar- 
rived on  the  coast  after -its  cruise  to  intercept  Dieskau. 
These  military  men  took  counsel  with  Belcher,  chief 
justice  of  the  province,  a  son  of  the  former  governor  of 
Massachusetts.  The  result  was,  notwithstanding  an 
express  provision  in  the  capitulation  of  Beau  Sejour 
that  the  neighboring-  inhabitants  should  not  be  disturb- 
ed, a  plan  for  treacherously  jddnapping  the  Acadiens, 


458          HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  and  transporting  them  to  the  various  British  provinces. 

;_  The  capitulation  of  Beau  Sejour  did  not  apply  to  the  set- 

175-5.  tlements  of  Minas  and  Annapolis  ;  but  the  people  there 
strenuously  denied  any  .complicity  with  the  French  in- 
vaders, which  seems,  indeed,  in  their  case,  to  have  been 
rather  suspected  than  proved. 

The  Acadiens  had  preserved  all  the  gay  simplicity  of 
ancient  French  rural  manners.  Never  was.  there  a 
people  more  attached  to  their  >  homes,  or  who -had  more 
reasons  for  being  so.  They  lived  in  rustic  plenty,  sur- 
rounded by  herds  of  cattle  and  sheep,  and  drawing  abund- 
ant crops  from-  the  rich  levels,  fine  sediment  deposited  by 
the  tides  on  the  borders  of  the  basins,  and  which  their 
industry  had  diked  in  from  the  sea.  Knowing  how  much 
was  to  be  dreaded  from  despair,  the,  ruthless  design 
against  them  was  kept  a  profound  secret.  Assembled 
Sept.  under  various  false  pretenses  at  their  parish  churches, 
they  were  surrounded  with  troops,  made  prisoners,  and 
hurried  on  board  the  ships  assigned  for  their  transporta- 
tion!  Wives  separated  from  their  -husbands  in  the  con- 
fusion of  embarking,  and  children  from  their  parents, 
were  carried  off  to  distant ,  colonies,  never  again  tb  see 
each  other!  Their  .lands,  crops,  cattle,  everything  ex- 
cept household  furniture,  which  they  could  not  carry 
away,  and  money,  of  which  they  had  little  or  none,  were 
declared  forfeit  to  the  grown ;  and,  to  insure  the  starva- 
tion of  such  as  fled  to  the  woods,  and  so  to  qompel  their 
surrender,  the  growing  crops  were  destroyed,  and  the 
barns  and  houses  .burned,  with  all  their  contents ! 

More  than  a  thousand  of  these  unfortunate  exiles,  car- 
ried to  Massachusetts,  long  remained  a  burden  on  the 
public,  too  broken-hearted  and  disconsolate  to  do  much 
for  themselves.  Their  misery  excited  pity,,  in  spite  of 
the  angry  feeling  created  by  protracted  hostilities ;  but 


FOURTH   INTERCOLONIAL  WAR!  459 

such  was  still,  in  New  England,  the  horror  of  popery,  that  CHAPTER 

they  were  not  allowed  to  console  themselves  by  the  eel- 

ebration  of  the  mass.  ,       1755. 

To  every  British  North  American  colony  was  sent ,  a 
quota  of  these  miserable  people,  a  burden  on  the  public 
charity,  for  which  the  Assemblies  were  called  on  to  .pro- 
vide. It  was  an  object  to  get  rid  of  them  as  speedily  as 
possible.  Some  made  their  way  to  France,  others  to 
Canada,  St..  Domingo,  and  Louisiana,  the  expenses  -of 
their  transport  being  paid  in  many  instances  by  the  colo- 
nial Assemblies.  To  such  of  these  fugitives  as  escaped 
to  Louisiana,  lands  were  assigned  in,  that  district  above 
New  Orleans  still  known  as  the  Acadien  coast.  The 
four  hundred  sent  to  Georgia  built  rude  boats,  and  coast- 
ed northward,  hoping  to  reach  the  Bay  of  Fundy.  Fewr 
however,  were  so  lucky  as  to  regain  a  French  home  and 
the  ministrations  of  the  Catholic  faith.  The  greater 
part,  spiritless,  careless,  and  helpless,  died  in  exile,  vic- 
tims of  disappointment  and  despair.  Such  wa»  the  result 
of  that  rivalry  of  a  century  and  a  half  between  the. En- 
glish of  New  England  and  the  French  of  Acadie.  Such 
is  religious  and  national  antipathy.  May  we>  npt  hope, 
that  hatreds  so  atrocious  are  fast  dying  out  ?  ,  - 

The  authors  of  this  cruel  scheme  had  been  confirmed 
in  their  purpose/by  a  repulse  which  the  English  had, 
meanwhile,  sustained  in  the  attempt  to  drive  the  French 
from  the  Ohio.  Braddock's  regulars  had  been  landed 
at  Alexandria,  a  small  town  lately  sprung  up  near  the 
head  of  ship  navigation  on  the  Potomac.  But  great 
difficulties  were  encountered  in  obtaining  provisions  and 
means  of  transportation.  The  contractors  perpetually 
failed  in  their  engagements,  and  Braddock  and  his  quar- 
ter-master, both  men  of  violent  tempers,  gave  vent,  with 
very  little  reserve^  to  expressions  of  disgust  and  eon- 


460  HISTORY    OJF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  tempt  for  the  colonists.     With  great  difficulty  the  troops 

reached  Cumberland,  where  they -came  to  a  full  stop. 

1755.  Franklin,  in  his  character  of  deputy  post-master,  having 
visited  the  camp  to  arrange  a  post  communication  with 
Philadelphia,  by  assuming  ^responsibilities  on  his  own 
credit,  which. left  him,  nu the  end,  a  considerable  loser, 
obtained  wagons  and,  horses  ^  among  the  Pennsylvania 
farmers,  which  enabled  the  army  once  more  to  move 
June  10.  forward.  "The  regulars  had  been  joined  by  the  detach- 
ed companies  of  the  Virginia  levies>  and  the  whole  force 
now  amounted  to  twenty-two  hundred  men.  Washing- 
ton had  been  invited  by  Braddock  to  attend  him  as  an 
aid-de-camp. 

From  Cumberland  to  Redstone  was  a  distance  of  fifty 
miles,  over  several  steep-  and  rough  ridges  of  the  Allega- 
ny  Mountains.  Only  Indian  paths  yet  traversed  this 
difficult  and  uninhabited  country,  through  which  the 
troops  had  to  cut  a  road  for  the  wagons  arid  artillery. 
Vexed  at  this  delay,  Braddock  left  Colonel  D unbar  to 
bring  up  the  heavy  baggage,  and  pushed  on  in  advance, 
at  the  head  of  thirteen  hundred  picked  men.  He  was 
warned  of  the  danger  to  which  the  nature  of  the  coun- 
try and  the  character  of  the  enemy  exposed  him,  and 
was  advised  to  place  the  provincials  in  his  front,  to 
scour  the  woods.  But  he  held  both  the  enemy  and  the 
provincials  in  too  much  contempt  to  give  attention  to 
this  advice.  He  had  gained  forty  miles  on  Dunbar,  and 
July  9.  was  now  within  five  miles  of  Fort  Du  Quesne,  when, 
about  noon,  just  after  fording  the  Monongahela  a  second 
time,  his  van,  while  ascending  the  rising  bank  of  the 
river,  was  fired  upon  by  an  invisible  enemy.  The  as- 
sailants, some  two  hundred  French  and  six  hundred  In- 
diansj  with  only  thirteen  French  officers,  and  none  above 

the  rank  of  captain,  were  posted  in  an  open  wood,  in  some 

* 


FOURTH  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  4(5  f 

shallow  undulations  just  deep  enough  to  conceal  them  CHAPTER 

as  they  lay  flat  on  the  ground  among  the  high  grass. 

Braddock's  main  body  hastened  up  with  the  artillery,  1755. 
but  the  unseen  enemy  continued  to  pour  in  a  deadly 
fire ;  and  the  British  troops,  seized  with  sudden  panic, 
were  thrown  at  once  into  hopeless  confusion.  In  vain 
the  general  exerted  himself  to  restore  order.  He  had 
five  horses  shot  under  him,  and  soon  fell  mortally  wound- 
ed. Not  less  than  sixty  officers,  chosen  marks  for  the 
enemy's  bullets,  were  killed  or  disabled  ;  among  the  lat- 
ter, Horatio  Gates,  captain  of  one  of  the  independent 
companies,  and  twenty  years  afterward  a  general  in  the 
revolutionary  army.  The  provincials,  acquainted  with 
the  Indian  method  of  fighting,  alone  made  any  effectual 
resistance.  Washington,  still  weak  from  the  effects  of 
a  recent  fever,  put  himself  at  their  head.  They  were 
the  last  to  leave  the  field,  and  partially  covered  the  flight 
of  the  discomfited  regulars.  Delay  was  thus  given  for 
bringing  off"  the  wounded,  but  the  baggage  and  artillery 
were  abandoned  to  the  enemy.  The  English  lost,  in 
killed  and  disabled,  some  seven  hundred  men,  or  more 
than  half  their  force  engaged.  The  loss  of  the  French 
and  Indians  did  not  exceed  sixty.  The  victors,  intent 
on  the  spoils  of  the  field,  pursued  only  a  few  miles,, but 
the  flying  troops  did  not  rally  till  they  reached  the  camp 
of  Dunbar,  who  abandoned  the  expedition,  and,  having 
destroyed  all  the  stores  not  needed  for  immediate  use, 
retired  first  to  Cumberland  and  then  to  Philadelphia. 

Shirley  meanwhile,  with  his  own  and  PepperelPs  reg- 
iment, lately  enlisted  in  New  England,  and  some  irreg- 
ulars and  Indians  drawn  from  New  York,  wag  on  the 
inarch  from  Albany  to  Oswego,  where  he  proposed  to 
embark  for  Niagara.  He  had  rivers  to  clear,  boats  to 
build,  roads  to  cut,  and  provisions  and  munitions  to  trans- 


462  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  port  through  the  wilderness.     The  army  reached  Oswego 

at  last,  but  seriously  disabled  by  sickness,  and  discour- 

1755.  aged  by  the  news  of  Braddock's  defeat,  who3e  death 
Aug.  21.  rajseci  Shirley  to  the  oqmmand-in-chief,  in  which  he  was 
presently  confirmed  by  an  appointment  from  England. 
Two  strong  forts  were  built  at  Oswego,  vessels  were  pre- 
pared, and  great  preparations  were  made  for  proceeding 
against  Niagara. 

The  Assembly  of  New  York  had  already  voted  £8000 
toward  the  enlistment  in  Connecticut  of  two  thousand 
additional  men  for  th6  Niagara  and  Crown  Point  expe- 
ditions. After  hearing  of  Braddock's  defeat,  they  raised 
four  hundred  men  of  their  own  in  addition  to  the  eight 
Sept.  2.  hundred  already  in  the  field.  Delancey,  though  present- 
ly superseded  in  the  government  by  Sir  Charles  Hardy, 
a  naval  officer,  still  retained  a  principal  influence  in  the 
administration . 

The  troops  destined  for  .the  Crown  Point  expedition, 
s5me  six  thousand  men,  drawn  from  New  England,  New 
Jersey,  and  New  York,  advancing  under  General  Ly- 
man,  of  Connecticut^  to  the  head  of  boat  navigation  on 
the  Hudsoji,  built  there  Fort  Lyman,  called  afterward 
Port  Edward.  Johnson  joined  them  with  the  stores  and 
artillery,  assumed  the  command,  and  advanced  to  Lake 
George.  Dieskau,  meanwhile,  had  ascended  Lake  Cham- 
plain  with  two  thousand  men  from  Montreal,  had  landed 
at  South  Bay,  the  southern  extremity  of  that  lake,  and 
had  pushed  on  toward  Fort  Lyman.  When  quite  near 
it,  dreading  its  artillery,  or  for  some  other  cause,  he  sud- 
denly changed  his  plan,  and  manched  to  attack  Johnson. 
Informed  of  his  approach,  Johnson  sent  forward  Colonel 
Williams  with  a  thousand  Massachusetts  troops,  and  a 
body  of  Mohawk  Indians  under  Hendrick,  a  famous  chief. 
In  a  narrow  and  rugged  defile,  about  three  miles  -from 


FOURTH   INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  453 

the  camp,  this  detachment  encountered  the  whole  of  Dies-  CHAPTE& 

3?  "VVT 

kan's  army.      Williams  and  Hendrick  were   slain,  arid      / 
their  force  driven  back  in  confusion.      Williams  had  se-  1755. 
cured  himself  a  better  monument  than  any  victory  could  SePt  5 
give.     While  passing  through  Albany  he  had  made  his 
will,  leaving  certain  property  to  found  a  free 'school  for 
Western  Massachusetts,   since   grown  into   "  Williams 
College." 

Following  up  the  defeated  troops,  Dieskau  assaulted 
Johnson's  camp.  It  was  protected  on  both  sides. by  im- 
passable swamps,  and  in  front  by  a  breastwork  of  fallen 
trees.  Some  cannon,  just  brought  up  from  Fort  Ed- 
ward, opened  an  unexpected  fire,  and  the  assailants  were 
presently  driven  back  in  confusion.  Dieskau,  mortally 
wounded,  was  take,n  prisoner.  The  remains  of  his  army 
fled  to  Crown  Point.  The  French  loss  was  estimated 
at  a  thousand  men,  the  English  at  thr^e  hundred. 

A  party  of  New  Hampshire'  troops,  on  their  way 
from  Fort  Lyman,  encountered  the  baggage  of  Dieskau's 
army,  which  they  captured  after  overpowering  the  guard. 
These  three  actions,  fought  the  same  day,  and  known  as 
the  battle  of  Lake  George^  were  proclaimed  through  the 
colonies  as  a  great  victory,  for  which  Johnson  was  re- 
warded with  the  honors'  of  knighthood,  ancl  a  parliament- 
ary grant  of  £5000.  As  Johnson  had  been  wounded 
early  in  the  action,  .the  Connecticut  troops  claimed  the 
honor  of  the  victory  for  General  Lyman,  second  in  com- 
mand. 

One  of  the  Massachusetts  regiments  distinguished  in 
this  action  was  commanded  by  Timothy  Ruggles,  after- 
ward president  of  the  Stamp  Act  Congress.  The  per- 
sonal history  of  Ruggles  serves  to  illustrate  the  simple 
manners  of  those  times.  Son  of  a  minister,  he  had  been 
educated  at  Cambridge,  had  studied  law,  and  commenced 


464  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  practice  of  it  in  Plymouth  and  Barnstable  with  good 

success.     Marrying  the  widow  of  a  rich  inn-keeper,  he 

1 755.  added  tavern-keeping  to  his  business  as  a  lawyer.  When 
the  war  broke  out  he  entered  into  the  military  line,  and, 
being  a  man  of  energy  and  sense,  he  served  with  dis- 
tinction for  the  next  five  years.  Israel  Putnam,  after- 
ward a  revolutionary  major  general,  now  a  captain  in  one 
of  the  Connecticut  regiments,  had  already  distinguished 
himself  as  a  partisan,  officer,  in  which  capacity  he  served 
during  the  war. 

Though  re-enforced  from  Massachusetts,  which  colony, 
on  hearing  of  Braddock's  defeat,  had  voted  two  thousand 
additional  troops,  Johnson  made  no  attempt  on  Crown 
Point.  He  even  allowed  the  French  to  establish  and  for- 
tify themselves  at  Ticonderoga.  Under  the  superintend- 
ence of  Gridley,  who  acted  as  engineer,  Fort  William 
Henry  was  built,  near  the  late  field  of  battle,  at  the  head 
of  Lake  George.  The  New  Englanders  accused  John- 
son of  incapacity  ;  but  he  alleged  the  want  of  provisions 
and  means  of  transportation  sufficient  to  justify  active 
operations. 

After  having  made  great  preparations  atOswego,  heavy 
rains  delayed  Shirley's  embarkation ;  and  finally,  owing 
to  the  approach  of  winter  and  the  scanty  supply  of  pro- 
visions, the  enterprise  against.  Niagara  was  given  over 
for  the  season.  Shirley  left  seven  hundred  men  in  gar- 
rison at  Oswego ;  but  all  the  colonial  levies,  except  six 
hundred  men  to  garrison  Fort  William  Henry,  and  such 
troops  as  Massachusetts  kept  up  at  the  eastward  .for 
frontier  defense,  were  marched  home  and  disbanded. 

The  frontiers  of  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and  Virgin- 
ia, uncovered  by  Dunbar's  precipitate  retreat,  were  ex- 
posed to  war  parties  of  Indians  in  the  French  interest. 
The  discontented  Delawares,  on  the  northern  borders  of 


FOURTH  INTERCOLONIAL  -WAR. 

Pennsylvania,  and  the  Shawanese,  in  the  interior,  availed 
themselves  of  this  crisis, to  commence  hostilities.  Gov*' 
ernor  Morris  called  loudly  for  men  and  money  to  defend  1755. 
the  frontiers.  The  inhabitants  of  Philadelphia,  in  ,an  ad- 
dress to  the  Assembly,  urged  a  liberal, grant.  Dropping 
their  favorite  paper  money  project;  the  Assembly  voted  a  July, 
tax  of  £ 50, 000,  to  be  levied  on  real  and  personal  estates, 
"  not  excepting  those  of  the  proprietaries" — a  clause,  as 
they  welLknew,  as  contrary  as  the  paper  money  to  the 
governor's  instructions.  If  that  clause  might  be  omit- 
ted,, some  gentlemen  of  Philadelphia,  in  the  proprietary 
interest,  offered  to  contribute  £5009,  the  estimated 
amount  of  the  tax  on.  the  proprietary  estates.  But  the 
Assembly  wishing  to  improve  this  emergency  to  establish 
a  precedent,  dexterously  evaded  the  offer  ;  the  governor 
stood  out,  and  the  bill  fell  to  the  ground.  Dunbar's  reg- 
ulars, advancing  from  Philadelphia  toward  the  frontier, 
afforded  temporary  protection. 

To  furnish  funds  for  defending  their  frontiers,  the  As- 
sembly of  Virginia  voted  £40,000  in  taxes,  in  anticipa-. 
tion  of  which  a.  new  batch  of  treasury  notes  was  issued. 
To  Washington,  for  his  gallant  behavior  at  Braddock's 
defeat^  £300  were  voted,  with  lesser  gratuities  /to  sev- 
eral ef  the  officers,  and  £5  to  each  of  the  surviving  Vir* 
gihia  privates  who  remained  in  the  service.  Among  the 
officers  thus  distinguished  were  Captain  Adam  .Stephen 
and  Surgeon  Hector  Craig,  the  one  afterward  a  major 
general,  the  other  at  the  head  of  the  medical  department 
of  tjie  revolutionary  army.  The  Virginia  regiment  was 
reorganized,  and  Washington,  again  placed  -at  its  heady 
with  Stephe^  for  lieutenant  colonel,  undertook  the.  diffi- 
cult task  of  repelling  the  Indians,  whose  ravages  now 
extended,  as  far  as  Winchester.  The  Assembly  of  Mar 
ryland  granted  £6000  for  the.  defense  -  of  the  province, 
II  _G  G 


466  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  and  an  additional  sum  was  raised  by  voluntary  subscrip- 

XXVI.  • 

'  tion.  A  body  of  militia  presently  took  the  field  under 
1755.  Governor  Sharpe.  A  violent  dispute  arose  between 
Sharpe  and  Djnwi^ldie  as  to  the  command  of  Fort  Cum* 
berland.  The  pretensions  of  Dagworthy,  in  the  Mary- 
land service,  who  had  formerly  bofne  a  royal  commission, 
and  who  claimed  precedence  on  that  account  over  all 
officers  with  merely  colonial  commissions,  was  another 
source  of  trouble  ;  and  Washington  presently  found  him- 
self obliged  to  make  a  winter's  visit  to  Boston,  to  obtain 
from  Shirley  definitive  orders  on  that  point. 

The  Quakers  were  still  a  majority  in  the  Pennsylva- 
nia'Assehibly,  but  they  could  no 'longer  resist  the  loud 
cry,  to  arms,  raised  in  Philadelphia  and  re-echoed  from 
the  frontiers,  occasioned  by  Indian  inroads  on  the  Junir 
ata  settlements.      The  proprietary  party  made  every  ef- 
fort, and  not  without  success,  to  stir  up  the  public  dis- 
sontent.     After  a  sharp  struggle  with  the  governor,  in 
consideration  of  a  voluntary  contribution  by  the  proprie- 
Nov.     taries  of  £5000,  th6  Assembly  consented  to  levy  a  tax 
of  ;£55,000;  from  which  the  proprietary  estates  were 
exempted.     The  expenditure  of  this  money  was  specially 
intrusted  to  a  joint  committee  of  seven;  of  whom  a  ma- 
jority were  members  of  Assembly,  which  committee  be- 
came the  managers  of  the  war  now  formally  declared 
against  the  Delawares  and  Shawanese.      Thus  driven, 
for  the  first  time,  to  open  participation  in  war,  -some  of 
the  Quaker  members  resigned  their  seats  in  the  Assem- 
bly.    Others  declined  a  re-election.      The  rule  of  the 
Quakers  came  to  ^n  end.     But  this  change,  contrary 
to  the  hopes  and  expectations  of  the  proprietaries,  did 
not?  reconcile  the  .quarrel  between  them  and  the  Assem- 
bly.     That  body  insisted^  as  strenuously  as  ever  on  their 
right  to  tax  the  proprietary  estates. 


EO.URTH    INTERCOLONIAL    WAR.  4.$  7 

Toward  the  close  of  the  year,  Shirley  met  a  conveiv 


'  tiori  of  ^provincial  governors  at  New  York,  to  arrange 
plans  for  the  next  campaign.  '  Expeditions  against  Fort  1755. 
Du  Quesne,  Niagara,  and  Crown  Point  were  agreed.  "  < 
upon,  for  which  tfyenty  thousand  men  would  be  neces- 
sary. New  York  voted  seventeen  hundred  men  as  her 
quota,  and  issued  ^40,000  in  ^paper  to  support  them. 
But  the  New  England  colonies,  exhausted  by  their  late 
efforts,  and  disgusted  by  iU  success,  did  not  respond  to 
the  expectations  of  Shirley.  Feebly  supported  in  his 
own  province,  the  commander-in-chief  was  fiercely  as- 
sailed by  Johnson  and  Delancey,  who  ascribed  to  Ms 
alleged  want  of  military  experience  the  ill  success  of  the 
late  expeditions  against  Niagara  and  Crown  Point,  and 
whose  intrigues  presently  procured  his  recall. 

Acts  were  passed  in  Pennsylvania  for  enrolling  a  1756. 
^volunteer  militia  and  for  raising  rangers  by  enlistment,  Jan 
Having  been  very  active  in  procuring  these  enactments, 
Franklin  undertook  the  military  command  of  the  frontier 
with  the  rank  of  colonel,  and,  unde^r  his  direction,  along 
the  base  of  the  Kittaniny  Mountains,  from  the  Dela- 
ware, to  the  Maryland  line,  a  chain  of  forts  and  block- 
houses was  erected,  commanding  the  most  important 
passes,  and  inclosing  the  greater  part  of  the  settlements. 
This  volunteer  militia,  however,  was  far  from  satisfac- 
tory to  the,  proprietary  party,  who  'sought  by  every 
means  to  obstruct  it,  and  the  act,  at  the  request  of  the 
proprietaries,  was  presently  set  aside  by  a  royal  veto. 
On  the  other  hand,  some  of  the  sturdier  Quakers  pro- 
tested against  a  tax  for  war  purposes,  and  advised  a 
-passive  resistance  to  its  collection.  William  Denny,,  a 
military  officer,  was  sent  out  to  supersede  Morris  as  May.  , 
deputy  governor. 

The  proprietary  of  Maryland  having  relinquished  his 


46-8  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  claim,  to  the  fines  and  forfeitures,  the  Assembly  granted 
-£40^000.  principally  in  paper  money. \  A  provision  that 
1756.  papists  should  pay  double  taxes  toward  the  redemption 
March,  -of  .this  paper  evinced  the  still  existing  force  of  sectarian 
hostility.  The  lands  and  manors  of  the  proprietary  were 
also  included  among  the  articles  taxed.  Fort  Cumber- 
land was  tob  far.  in  advance  to  be  of  any  use,  and  a  new 
fort,  called  Frederic,  was  built  at  that  bend  of  the  Po- 
tomac, which/ approaches  nearest  the  Pennsylvania  line. 

Fifteen  hundred  volunteers  and  ^drafted  militia,  com- 
manded by  Washington,-  and  scattered  in  forts,  afforded 
but  an  imperfect  defense  to  the  suffering  inhabitants  of 
the  Virginia  Valley,  many  of  whom  abandoned  their 
farms.  <  In  apology  for  the  small  number  of  these  forces, 
Dinwiddie  wrote  to  the  Board  of  Trade,  "  We  dare  not 
part  with  any  of  our  white  men  to  -any  distance,  as  We 
must  have  a  watchful  eye  over  our  negro  slaves."  l)u- 
mas,  the '  conqueror  of  Braddock,  in  command  at  Fort 
Du  Quesne,  and  De  Celeron  at  Detroit,  were  constantly 
stimulating^  the  Indians.  Du  Quesne  having  returned  to 
the  marine  service,  the  Marquis  de  Vaudreuil  de  Cavag- 
nal  had  been  appointed  to  succeed  him  as  governor  of 
New  France. 

The  French  had  all  along  offered  to  treat ;  but  they  de- 
manded as  a  preliminary  the  restoration  of  the  merchant 
ships  seized  by  the  English — -an  act  which  they  complain- 
ed of  as  piratical,  When  this  was  refused,  they  commis- 
sioned privateers,  and  threatened  to  invade  England  with 
a  fleet  and  army  collected  at  Brest.  To  guard  against 
this  threatened  invasion,  a  body  of  Hessian  and  Hano- 
verian troops  was  received  into  England.  To  excite  the 
colonists  to  fresh  efforts,  £115,000  were  voted  as  &  reim- 
bursement to  the  provinces  concerned  in  f)ieskau's  de- 
feat. Provision  was  also  made  for  enlisting  a  royal 


FOURTH  INTERCOLONIAL  WAH.  459 

American  regiment,  to  be  composed  of  four  battalions  of  CHAPTER 
a  thousand  men  each.     A  clause,  afterward  somewhat 
modified,  authorizing  the  appointment  of  -  seventy  officers  17.5.6. 
in  this  regiment  from  among  the  foreign  Protestants  set- 
tled and  naturalized  in  America,  gave  great  offense  in 
the  colonies,  as  did  another  clause  for  the  enlistment  of 
indented  servants  upon  a  compensation  to  be  paid-  to 
their  masters  out  of  the  colony  funds.     ,Alt  hopes  of  rec- 
onciliation being  now  over,  England  formally  ^declared  May  18. 
war  against  France,  to  which  the  French  court  presently 
responded.  '  '  -.  •/•  •  / 

Vigorous  measures  were  meanwhile  in  progress  for  the 
supply  and  re-enforcement  of  Oswego.  Bradstreet^  of 
New  York,  appointed  commissary  general,,  employed  in 
this  service  forty  companies  of  boatmen,  each  of  fifty  men. 
Under  him,  Philip  Schuyler  took  his  first  lessons  in  the 
art  of  war.  William  Alexander,  another  native  of  New 
York,  known  afterward  in  the  revolutionary  armies  as 
Lord  Sterling,  acted  as  Shirley's  military  secretary.  By 
promises  of  parliamentary  reimbursements,  and  the  ad- 
vance to  Massachusetts  of  ^£30,000  out;  of  the  king's 
money  in  his  hands,  Shirley  assembled  at  Albany  seven 
thousand  provincials,  chiefly  of  New  England,,  under  the 
command  of  General  Winslow.  The  remains  of  Brad- 
dock's  regiments,  ordered  on-  the  same  service*  wef'e  pres- 
ently joined  by  two  new  regiments  from  England,  tin-  June  25. 
der  General  Abercrombie,  who  outranked  and  superseded 
Shirley..  But  the  Earl  of  Loudon,  selected  by  the  Brit- 
ish war  office  as  commander-in-chief,  being  daily  expect- 
ed, Abercrombie  declined  the  responsibility  of  any  forward 
movement.  ,  -j, 

Loudon  gave  an  early  specimen  of  his  -habitual  pro- 
crastination -by  not  arriving  till  late  in  the  summer.     It  July  27. 
was  then   determined  to  proceed  with  the  bulk  of  t^e1 


470  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES, 

CHAPTER  army  against  Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point,  while  one 
. '    of  thft  regular  regiments  marched  under  General  Webb 
1756.  to  re-enforce  Oswego— a  movement  made  too  late. 

•While  the  "English  army  lay  idle  at  Albany,  short  of 
provisions,  and  suffering  from  the  ^mall-pox,  Montcalm, 
Dieskau's  successor,  lately  arrived  frorti  'France  with  a 
re-enforcement  of  troops,  had  ascended  the  St.  Lawrence, 
had  crossed  Lake  Ontario,  had  landed  near  Oswego  with 
a  force  of  nve  thousand  men,  regulars,  Canadian  militia, 
and  Indians,  and  hud  laid  siege  to  the  forts.  One  of 
them  was  abandoned  as  untenable.  Colonel  Mercer,  .the 
•commanding  officer,  wag  kilted.  '<  The  dispirited  troops, 

, Aug.  14.  after  a  short  bombardment,  surrendered  as  prisoners  of 
war.  -.Upward  of  a  thousand  men,  a  hundred  and  thirty- 
five  pieces  of  artillery,  a  great  quantity  of  stores  and 
provisions,  and  a  fleet  of  boats  and  small  vessels,  built 
the  year  before  for  the  Niagara  expedition,  fell  into  the 
hands  of  Montcalm. 

To  please  the  Six  Nations,  who  had  never  been  well 
satisfied  at  the  existence  of  this  post  in  the  center  of 
their  territory,  the  French  commander,  with  great  poli- 
cy, destroyed  the  forts,  and  by  this  concession  induced 
the  Indians  to  take  a  position,  of  neutrality.  The  fall 
of f  Oswego  occasioned  almost  as  much  alarm  as  the  de- 
feat of  Braddock  the  year  before.  The  British  troops, 
on  the  march  under  Webb,  fell  back  with  terror  and  pre- 
cipitation to  Albany.  Orders vwere  sent  to.  give  over  the 
march  t>n^  Ticonderoga,  and  to  devote  the  efforts  of  that 
army  to  strengthen  Forts  Edward  and  William  Henry. 

As  the  season  advanced  and  their  term  of  service  ex- 
pired, the  provincials  were  disbanded.  The  loss  by  sick- 
ness had  been  very  severe,  and  many  died  after  their  re- 
turn. The  regulars,  except  small  garrisons  at  Forts 
Edward  and  William  Henry,  went  into  winter  quarters 


FOU'RTH  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  471 


at  New  York   and  Albany^— not,  however,  till  they  had  CHAPTER 

first  teen  employed  in.  keeping  the  peace  between  Mas- 

sachusetts  and  New. York.  \  As  th6  settlements  approach-  1756. 
ed  each  other,  the  boundary  dispute  between  those"  two 
provinces  had  reached  the  extremity  of  riot  and  blood- 
shed. Loudon's  demand  at  New  York  for;  gratuitous 
quarters  for  his  officers  ^  involved  him  in  a  violent  quar- 
rel with  the  citizens,  whom  he  frightened,  at  last,  into 
obedience. 

More  money  being  absolutely  necessary  for  the  defense 
of  «thQ  frontiers,  by  a  sort  of  compromise  between  the 
governor  and  the  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania  £30,000 
were  voted,  to  be  issued  in  paper,  and  redeemed  by  a  ten  June, 
years'  continuance  of  the  lately-expired  excise,  to  b,e  ap- 
propriated toward  the  support  of  twenty-five  companies 
of  rangers.  Franklin  having  retired  from  the  military 
servide,  John  Armstrong — afterward  a  general  in  the* 
revolutionary  army-r-was  commissioned  as  colonel,  and 
soon  distinguished  himself  by  a  successful  expedition 
against  a  hostile  Indian  town  on  the  Allegany.  CRarles  Sept. 
Mercer,  a  Scotch  physician — afterward  also  a  revolution-  \ 
ary  general — served  in  the  same  expedition^  as  captain. 
The  hostile  Indians,  thus  attacked  in  their  own  villages, 
retired  further  to  the  west ;  yet  scalping  parties  occa- 
sionally penetrated  within  thirty  miles  of  Philadelphia. 
Large  premiums  were  offered  by  the  Assembly  for.  In- 
dian prisoners  and  Indian  'scalps.  The  feejing  on  the 
frontier  against  the  Indians  was  very  bitter.  The  Mo- 
ravian missionaries,  some  of  whose  Indian  converts  had 
been  seduced  to  join  the  hostile  parties,  became  objects  of 
suspicion.  There  were  those,  however,  among  the  Quak- 
ers, still  true  to  their  pacific  principles^  who  insisted,  and 
not  entirely  without  reason,  that  the  Delaware^,  sok  long 
friendly  to ,  Pennsylvania,  had  not  been  driven  into  hos- 


472  HI'STORY    OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER^  tilities  except  by  wrongs  and  intrusions  that  ought  to 

XXVI. 

; be,  redressed.      They  formed  an  association,  contributed 

J756.  money,  and  opened  a  communication  with  the  Indians  for 
the  purpose  of  bringing  about  a  peace.  Two  conferences, 
not  altogether  unsuccessful,  were  held  with  this  intent  at 
Easton.  Sir  William  Johnson  complained,  indeed,  that 
the  Quakers  had  intruded  upon  his  office  of  Indian  agent 
and  sole  negotiator.  Others,  alleged  that  by  this  inter- 
ference claims  were  suggested  which  otherwise  the  In- 
dians never  would  have  thought  of»  It  was  considered 
a, great  innovation  upon  the  usual  course  of  Indian  treat- 
ies when  /Tedyuscung,  the  Delaware  chief,  in  the  sec- 
ond conference  at  Easton,  had  for  his  secretary  Charles 
Thompson,  master  of -the  Quaker  academy  at  Philadel- 
phia, afterward  secretary  to  the  Continental  Congress. 
In  spite  of  obloquy  heaped  upon  them,  in  spite  of  accu- 
sations of  partiality  to  the  Indians  and  treachery  to  the 
white  race,  the  Quakers  persevered  ;  and  a  third  treaty, 
held  the,  next  year  at  Lancaster,  at  which  delegates  from 
the  Six  Nations  were  also  .present,  afforded  a  partial  re- 
lief to  the  frontier  of  Pennsylvania. 

,  The  Carolinas,  thus  far,  had  escaped  the  ravages  of 
war  ;  but  serious  apprehensions  began  to  be  felt  lest  the 
Cherokees  might  be  seduqed  from  their  allegiance. 
Though  very  ill  armed,  they  could  muster  three  or  four 
thousand  warriors.  k  In  a  treaty  held  with  them  early  in 
>the  war,  Governor  Glen  had  obtained  an  extensive  ces- 
sion in  the  middle  and  upper  part  of  South  Carolina ; 
and  presently,  in  accordance,  as  it  is  said)  with  long-re- 
peated solicitations  on  the  part  of  the  Indians,  he  built 
Fort  Prince  George,  -on  one  of  the  head  streams  .of  the 
Savannah,  within  gunshot  of  Kee-o-wee,  the  principal 
village,  of  the  Lower  Cberokees.  Another  fort,  in  the 
country  of  the  Upper, Cherokees, -on  the  head  waters  of 


••  ffef 


FOURTH   INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.-  473 


the  Tennessee  River,  near  the  southwestern  boundary  CHAPTER 
of  Virginia,  was  erected  by  a  party  from  that  province^  _____ 
and  named  Fort  Loudon,  after  the  commander-in-chief,  1756. 
who  had  also  a  commission  as  governor  of  Virginia. 

In  consequence  of  a  violent  dispute  with  the  Assem- 
bly, in  which  Glen  and  his  council  had  involved  them- 
selves, no  military  supplies  had  hitherto  been  granted  by 
South  Carolina.  This  quarrel  abated  on  the  arrival  of 
a  new  governor,  William  H.  Littleton,  a  cadet  of  the  no- 
ble family  of  that  name.  He  obtained  a  grant  of  £4000 
toward  enlisting  two  companies^  to  which  a  third  was 
presently  ad,ded,  as  garrisons  for  the  forts.  But  the 
slave  population  of  South  Carolina  was  still -more  pre- 
ponderant than  in  Virginia.  It  was  no  easy  matter  to 
enlist  men,  and  the  province  presently  received  as  wel-  1757. 
come  guests  half  a  battalion  of  the  Royal  Americans, 
with  three  hundred  colonial  levies  from  North  Carolina, 
and  others  from  Virginia. 

The  plan  for  the  next  campaign,  proposed  by  Loudon.  N 
at  the  annual  military  council,  held  this  year  at , Boston,  Jan.  19. 
was  limited  to  the  defense  of  the  frontiers  and  an  expedi- 
tion against  Louisburg.      To  serve  as  garrisons  for  Forts 
William  Henry  and  Edward,  Loudon  called  on  New  En- 
gland for  four  thousand,  and  on  New  York  and  New  Jer- 
sey for  two  thousand  men.      Governor  Hardy  being  api-: 
pointed  to  a  naval  command,  Lieutenant-governor  Delan- 
cey  reassumed  the  administration  of  New  York.      The 
Assembly  of  New  Jersey  took  advantage  of  this  occasion 
to  put  out  a  new  issue  of  paper  money.  <  New,  Jersey, 
as  well  as  Pennsylvania,  suffered  from  the  incursions  of 
the  Delawares,  against  whom  it  continued  necessary  to 
guard.       .  . 

To  aid  in  the  defense  of  Pennsylvania,-  Colonel  Stan- 
wix  was  stationed  in  the  interior,  with  five  companies 

. 

-   , 


474  HISTORY    OF    THE.  UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  of  the  Royal  Americans  ; •<  but  'this  was  only  granted  on 
nonditirrp  that  two  hundred ' recruits  should  be  enlisted 

1757.  for  that  regiment,  to  serve  in  South  Carolina.  The 
Pennsylvania  Assembly,  again  yielding,  had  voted  a  levy 
April,  of ^100,000,  without  insisting  on  their  claim  to  tax 
the  proprietary  estates.  But  they  protested  that  they 
did  it  through  compulsion,  and  they  sent  Franklin  as 
their  agent  to  England  to  urge  their  complaints.  The 
Charter  authorized  the  proprietaries,  their  deputies,  and 
lieutenants  to  make  laws  "  according  to  their  best  discre- 
tion," by  and  with  the  advice- and  consent  of  the  freemen. 
The  Assembly  took  the  ground  that  the  proprietary -'in- 
structions to  the  deputy  governors,  being  a  restraint  upon 
their  discretion,  were  therefore  illegal  and  void. 

Washington,,  with  the  Virginia  levies,  continued  to 
watch  the  frontiers  of  that  province.  But  no  scheme 
of  defense  could  answer  much  purpose  so  long  as  the 
French  held  Fort  Du  Quesne.  The  defense  of  the  fron- 

July9,  tiers  thus  provided  for,  Loudon  sailed  from  New  York 
with  six  thousand  regulars,  including  late  re-enforcements 
from  England.  At  Halifax  he  was  joined  by  an  English 
fleet, of  eleven  sail  of  the  line,  under  Admiral  Holborne, 
,  -with  $ix  thousand  additional  soldiers  on  board.  But 
-Louisburg  was  discovered  to  have  a  larger  garrison  than 
had  beefc  supposed  ;  and  while  Loudon  lingered  with 
characteristic  indecision,  seventeen  French  ships  of  |;he 
line  anchored  in  the  harbor,  and  made  attack  wholly  out 
of  the  question.  Loudon  then  re-embarked  his  forces 
and  returned  to  New  York. 

Not  only  had  Shirley  lost  his  military  command,  the 
machinations  of  his  enemies  had  deprived  him  of  his  gov- 
ernment also.  It  was  given  to  Thomas  Po^vnall,  whose 
brother  was  secretary  to  the  Board  of  Trade.  Pownall 
had  first  come  to  America  with  the  unfortunate  Sir  Dan- 


FOURTH   INTERCOLONIAL  WAR4.  475 

vers  Osborne.      Holding' a  commission  as  lieutenant  gov-  CHAPTER 

ernor  of  New  Jersey,  he  had  been  present  at  the  Albany  ,_ 

Congress,  ancl  afterward  at  the  military  convention  at '1757. 
Alexandria.    -Though  he  had  received  some1  favors  from 
Shirley,  he  joined  the.  party   against  him,  and,  having 
gone  to  England,  had  obtained  there  the  government  of 
Massachusetts.      Pownall  had  hardly  reached  the  prov-    July, 
ince,  the  administration  of  which  for  four  months  past 
had  been  in  the  hands  of  the  council  by  the  death  of 
Lieutenant-governor   Phipps,  when  an   express    arrived 
from  Fort  Edward  with  alarming  news  of  a  French  in- 
vasion. 

The  British  army  drawn  aside  for  the  futile  attack 
on  Louisburg,  Montcajrn,  with  eight  thousand  men,  in- 
cluding the  garrisons  of  Crown  Point  and  Ticonderoga, 
ascended  Lake  Greorge,  landed  at  its  southern  extrem- 
ity, and  laid  siege  to  Fort  William  Henry.  Colonel 
Monroe,  the  English  officer  in  command,  had  a  garrison 
of  two  thousand  men.  General  Webb  lay  at  Fort  EcU 
ward,  only  fourteen  miles  distant,  with  four  thousand 
troops.  Montcalm  pressed  the  attack  with  vigor. .  No, 
movement  was  made  from  Fort  E4ward  for  Monroe's 
relief.  His  ammunition  was  exhausted ;  and,  after  a 
six  days'  siege,  .he  .found ,  himself  obliged  to  capitulate.  Aug.  9. 
The  garrison  were  -to  march  out  with  the  honors  of  war, 
and  were  to  be  protected  with  their  baggage  as  far  as 
Fort  Edward.  Montcalm's  Indian  allies,  dissatisfied  with 
these  terms,  and  greedy  for  plunder,  fell  upon  the  retreat- 
ing and  disarmed  troops.  Monroe,  with  the  greater  part 
of  the^  men,  fell  back  to  the  .French  earnp  to  demand  pro- 
tection. About  six  hundred  fled  into  the  woods,  and  the 
first  who  reached  Fort  Edward  reported  the  massacre  of 
the  others.  Some  few  wer£  killed, or  never  heard  of; 
the  rest  came  in  one  after  Another,  many  having  lost 


476      HISTORY '0*;  THE  UNITED-  STATES 

CHAPTER  their  way  and  suffered  extreme  hardships.      Frye,  the 

commander  of  the  Massachusetts  forces,  after  ^wandering 

1757.  abbut  some  days,  reached  Fort  Edward  with  no  clothes 
but  his  shirt. 

The  fall  of  Fort  William  H6nry  occasioned  even  great- 
er alarm  than  the  loss  of,Oswego  the  year  before.  Pow- 
nall appointed  Sir  Wiljiam  Pepperell  lieutenant  general 
of  Massachusetts.  Orders  were  issued  for  calling  out 
the  militia,  and  twenty  thousand  men  were  assembled  in 
arms,  Satisfied  with  having  caused  so  much  terror  and 
expense,  Montcalm,  without  attempting  any  thing  fur- 
ther, retired  again  td  Canada. 

xThe  arrival  of  Pownall  made  a  considerable  change  in 
the  politics  of  Massachusetts.  By  taking  Otis,  of  Barn- 
stable;  speaker  of  the  House,  and  other  opponents  of  Shir- 
ley, into  favor,  according  to  Hutchinson,  who  was  pres- 
ently appointed,  lieutenant  governor,  he  disgusted  the  old 
friends  of  government,  and  greatly  weakened  the  govern- 
ment party.  Otis  was  promised  a  seat  on  the  bench  of 
the  Supreme  Court ;  his'  son,  a  young  lawyer  of  -shin- 
ing abilities,/ Was  appointed  advocate. of  the  Admiralty. 
Though  Pownall's  habits  were  rather  freer  than  ^suited 
the  New  England  standard,  these  concessions  to  the  op- 
position, his  frank  mariners,  and  liberal  political  views, 
served  to  make  him-1  very  popular. 

Aug.  31.  On  the  death  of  the  aged  Belcher, , Pownall  went  to 
New  Jersey  to  assume  authority  as  lieutenant  governor. 
But  he  found  it  impracticable  to  govern  both  provinces 
at  the  same  time.  *The  government  of  New  Jersey, 
after  remaining  for  some*  months  in  the  hands  of  the 
president  and  council,  was  transferred  ta  Francis  Ber- 
nard, a  practitioner  in  the  English  ecclesiastical  courts. 
The  Massachusetts  General  Court  had  provided  bar- 
racks at  the  castle  for  such  British  troops  as  might  be 


FOURTH  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  477 

sent  to  the  province, ;   But  some  officers  on  the/recruit-  CHAPTER 

•  XXVI 

ing  service,  finding  the  distance  inconvenient,  demanded 

to  be  quartered  in  the  town.  They  insisted  on  the  pro-  1757. 
Visions  of  the  Mutiny  Act ;  but  the  magistrates  to  whom 
they  applied  denied  that  act  to  be  in  force  in  the  colo- 
nies. Loudon  warmly  espoused  the  cause  of  his  officers ; 
he  declared  "  that  in  time  of  war  the  rules  and  customs  Nov.  15. 
of  war  must  govern,"  and  threatened  to  send  troops  to 
Boston  to  enforce  the  demand  if  not  granted  within  forty- 
eight  hours.  To  avoid  this  extremity,  the, General  Court 
passed  a  law  of  their  own,  enacting  some  of  the  principal 
prpvisions  of  the  Mutiny  Act ;  and  Loudon,  through 
PownalPs  persuasions,  reluctantly  consented  to  accept 
this  partial  concession.  The  General  Court  did  not  deny 
the  power  of  Parliament  to  quarter  troops  in  America. 
Their  ground  was,  that  the  act,  in  its  terms,  did  not 
extend  to  the  colonies.  A  sirjiilar  dispute  occurred  in 
South  Carolina,  where  great  difficulty  was  encountered 
in  finding  winter  quarters  for  the  Royal  Americans.  H 

The  first  royal  governor  of  Georgia,  and  his  secretary, 
William  Little"*,  having  involved  themselves  in  a  violent 
controversy  with  the  Assembly,  Reynolds  had  been  superT 
seded  by  -Henry  Ellis,  a  protege  of  the  Earl  of  Halifax,  Feb.  16. 
the  head  of  an  expedition,  some  nine  years  before,  for 
the  discovery  of  a  northwest  passage.      The  population 
of  Georgia  now  amounted  to   six   thousand.     On   the 
breaking  out  of  the  war,  Reynolds  had  enlisted  twenty 
rangers,  but  the  quarrel  with  the  Assembly  prevented   - 
any  provision  for  paying  them.     After  Ellis's  .arrival, 
the  Assembly  voted  money  for  erecting  log  forts  at  Sa- 
vannah, Augusta,  Ogeechee,  Midway,  and. New  Inver-- 
ness.     Ellis  applied  himself  to  *the  preservation  of  a  good 
understanding   with   the   neighboring   Creeks    and   the 
Spanish  governor  of  Florida.    .The  rangers  were  taken 


478.  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  into  the   king's   pay,  <  and  Ellis   obtained  from  Colonel 

XXVJ 

_____  Bouquet,  commanding  in  South  Carolina,  a^  hundred  pro- 
1*757.  vinciar  troops ' of  Virginia,  to  "be  quartered  in  Savannah. 
Oct.  25.  A  solemn  council  Was  presently  held  with  the  Creeks, 
Nor.  3.  and  a  new  treaty  of  peace  entered  into  with  that  power- 
ful confederacy,     A"  long  dispute  had  been  pending,  in 
which  the  Creeks  took  a  deep  interest,  growing  out  of 
the  claims  of  Mary,  the  Jndian   interpreter,  of  whose 
services  Oglethorpe  had  availed  himself  on  his  first  ar- 
rival in  Savannah.     After  the  death  of  her  first  hus- 
band, she  had  married  a  second  white  maji,  and,  upon  his 
death,  a  third- — no  less  a  person  than  Thomas  Bosom*- 
worth,1  who  had  first  been  Oglethorpe's  agent  for  Indian 
.     affairs*  but  afterward  had  gone  to  England,  had  obtained 
hoty  orders y  and  returned  to  Georgia  as  the  successor  of 
the  Wesleys  and'Whitfield.      The  Creeks  had  made  a 
conveyance  to  Mary  of -their  reservation  of  the  islands 
N  on 'the  coast  and  the  tract  just  above  Savannah.     She 
also  claimed  u  large  amount  as  arrears  of  her  salary  as 
colonial  interpreter.      After  a  twelve  years'  controversy, 
which  at  times:  had  threatened  an  Indian  war,  the  mat- 
1759.  ter  was  finally  settled  by  a  compromise;  securing  to  Mary 
and  her  husband  the  title  to  the  island    of   St.  Catha- 
rine's, and  the  payment  of  £2000  arrears  out  of  the  sales 
ofthe  other  reserved  lands.     Another  thing  accomplished 
1758.  by  Ellis  was  the  division  of  the  colony  into  eight  parish - 
esr-and  the  establishment  of  the  Church  of  England  by 
law,  with  a. salary  of  £25  to  each  parish  minister. 

To  the  war  in  America,  and  the  simultaneous  contest 
between  the  English  and  French  Eftst  India  Companies 
on,  the  other  side  ofthe  globe,  had  been  added  a  military 
struggle,  the  greatest  the  world  had  yet  seen,  carried  on 
in  the  heart  of  Europe.  France  and  Austria,  forgetting 
their  ancient  rivalries,  and  supported  by  Russia  and 


FOURTH    INTERCOLONIAL    WAR.  479 

mos£  of  the  Germanic  States,  had  united  against  Prus-  CHAPTER 

XXVI 

sia  and  Hanover.      The  Hanoverian  army  had  submit-  _______ 

ted  to  the  disgraceful  capitulation  of  Closter- Seven ;  that 
principality  had  been  occupied  by  the"  French;  and  it 
required  all  the  energy  and  military  genius  of  Frederic 
of  Prussia  to  save  him  from  a  similar  fate. 

In  America,  after  three  campaigns,  and  extraordinary 
efforts  on  the  part  of  the  English,  the  French  still  held 
possession  of  almost,  all  the,  territory  in  dispute.  They 
had  been  expelled,  indeed,  from  the  Bay  of  Fundy  ;  but 
Louisburg,  commanding  the  entrance  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence, Crown  Point  and  Ticonderoga  on  Lake  Cham- 
plain,  Frontenac  and  Niagara  on  Lake  Ontario,  Presque 
Isle  on  Lake  Erie,  and  the  chain  of  posts  thence  to  the 
head  of  the  Ohio,  were  still  in  their  hands/  They  had 
expelled  the  English  from  their  ancient  posj;  of  Oswego,- 
had  driven  them;  from  Lake  George,  and  'had  compelled 
the  Six  Nations  to  a  treaty  of  neutrality.  A  devastating 
Indian  war  was  raging  along  ihe  whole  northwestern 
frontier  of  the  British  colonies.  A  line  from  thet  mouth 
of  the  Kennebec,  Across  the  Merrimac  and  Connecticut 
to  Fort  Edward  on  the  Hudsorf,  and  thence  across  the 
Mohawk,  the  Delaware,  and  'the  Susquehanna  to  Fort 
Frederic  on  the  Potomac,  marked  the  exterior  limit  of 
tire  settlements;  but  Indian  scalping  parties  penetrated 
into  the  very  center  of  Massachusetts,  approached  within , 
a  short  distance  of  Philadelphia,  and  kept  Maryland  and 
Virginia  in  constant  alarm. 
'  i-  -  .  —  •  • 


j  •  '     '     ; 


480  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


CHAPTER,  XXV 1 1. 

PROGRESS  AND  .CONCLUSION   OF   THE   FOURTH 

LONIALWAR:  ACCESSION  OF  GEORGE  tfi..  THE  ENGLISH 

MASTERS  OF  THK  CONTINGENT  NORTH  OF  THE  GULF  OF 
MEXICO  ANIXEAST  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI.  LOCAL  AFFAIRS. 
PROGRESS  OF  THE  COLONIES. 

PITT,  afterward.  Earl  of  Chatham,  took 
CHAPTER  adroit  advantage  of  the,  popular  discontent  at  the  ill  sue- 

XXVII.  -• 

_ , cess  of  the  ^  war  to  force  himself  to  a  chief  seat  in  the 

1757.  British  cabinet — -a  station  which  he  owed  more  to  his 
energy  and  eloquence  .than  to  court  favor,  or  to  the  in- 
fluence of  family  or  party  connections,  hitherto,  in  En- 
gland, the  chief  avenues  to  power.  Leaving  to  Newcas- 
tle, who  .still  acted  as  nominal  head  of  .the  ministry,  the 
details -of -the  d6mestic  administration,  Pit  V  as  secretary 
of  state,  with  the  cipher  Holderness  as  his1  colleague  in 
that  department,  assumed  to  himself  the  control  of  for- 
eign and  .colonial  affairs,  and  the  entire  management  of 
the  war. 

;  petermined  on  a  vigorous  campaign  in  America,  he 
addressed,  a  circular  to  the  colonies,  in  wnicfr  he  called 
for.  twenty  thousand  men,  and  as  many  more  as  could 
be  furnished.  The  crown  would  provide  arms,  ammu- 
nition, tents,  arid  provisions;  the  colonies  were  to  raise, 
clothe,  and  pay  the  levies;  but  for  all  these  expenses 
Pitt  promised  a  parliamentary  reimbursement— a  prom- 
ise which  acted  like  magic.  Massachusetts  voted  seven 
thousand  men,  besides  six  hundred  maintained  for  front- 


FOURTH    INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  481 

* 
ier  defense.      To  fill  up  this  quota,  soldiers  were  draft-  CHAPTER 

»  •  XXVIL 

ed  from  the  militia  and  obliged  to  serve.      The  Advances 

of  Massachusetts  during  the  year  were  not  less  than  a  1758. 
million  of  dollars.  Individual  Boston  merchants  paid 
taxes  to  the  amount  of  $2000.  The  tax  on  real  estate 
amounted  to  two  thirds  the  income.  The  insolvencies 
occasioned,  by  the  pressure  of  the  war  gave  rise  to  a 
bankrupt  act,  but  this  was  disallowed,  in  England.  Con- 
necticut voted  five  thousand  men.  New  Hampshire  and 
Rhode  Island  furnished  each  a  regiment  of  five  hundred 
men.  l^he  New  York  quota  of  one  thousand  seven  hund- 
red men  Was  raised  to  two  thousand  six  hundred  and 
eighty.  The  New  Jersey  regiment  was  enlarged  to  a 
thousand.  The  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania  appropriated 
;£  10  0,000  toward-  bringing  two  thousand  seven  hund- 
red men  into  the  field.  Virginia  raised  two  thousand 
men. 

To  co-operate  with  these  colonial  levies,  the  Royal 
Americans  were  recalled .  froni  Carolina.  Large  re-en- 
forcements of  regulars  were  also  sent  from  England,  made 
disposable  by  a  plan  which  Pitt  had  adopted  for  intrust- 
ing the  local  defense  of  Great  Britain  to  an  organized 
and  active  body  of  militia.  By  means  of  these  ^various 
arrangements,  Abercrombie,  appointed  commander-in- 
chief,  found  fifty  thousand  men  at  his  disposal^a  great- 
er number  than  the  whole  male  population  of  New  Prance. 
Of  this  army  twenty- two  thousand  were  regulars,  includ- 
ing the  Royal  Americans  ;  the  rest  were  provincials. 
The  total  number  of  the  inhabitants  of  Canada  able  to 
bear  arms  did  not  exceed  twenty  thousand ;  the  regular 
troops  were  from  four  to  five  thousand.  As  the  people 
had  been  so  constantly  called  off  to  bear  arms,  cultiva- 
tion had  been  neglected,  and  Canada  suffered  almost  a 
famine. 

II.— H  H 


482  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER       Shirley's   schemes   of  conquest  were   now  renewed. 
_Louisburg,  Ticonderoga,,  and  Fort  Du  Quesne  were  all 

1758.  to  be  struck  at  once.      The  first  blow  fell  on  Louisburg. 

Junes.  Jjoscawen  appeared  before  that  fortress  with  thirty-eight 
ships  of  war,  convoying  from  Halifax  an  army  of  four- 
teen thousand  men,  chiefly  regulars,  under  General  Am- 
herst,  but  including,  also,  a  strong  detachment  of  New 
England  troops.  Louisburg  was  held  by  a  garrison  of 
three  thousand  men  ;  eleven  ships  of  war  lay  in  the 
harbor.  But  the  works  were  too  much  out  of  repair  to 
withstand  the  operations  of  a  regular  .siege ;  and  the 
garrison,  after  suffering  severe  loss,  found  themselves 

July  27.  obliged  to  capitulate.  This  capitulation  included  not 
Louisburg  only,  but  the  islands  of  Cape  Breton,  St. 
John's  (now  Prince  Edward's),  and  their  dependencies. 
The  garrison  became  prisoners  of  war  ;  the  inhabitants, 
many  -of  them  refugees  from  Acadie,  were  shipped  to 
-France.  Such  was  the  end  of  the  French  attempts  at 
colonization  in  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  which  now 
passed  into  exclusive  English  occupation.  Amherst 
sailed  with  his  army  for  Boston,  and  thence  ^marched  to 
the  western  frontier. 

While  the  siege  of  Louisburg  was  going  on,  Aber- 
crombie,  with  sixteen  thousand  men,  embarked  at  Fort 
William  Henry  in  flat  boats  prepared  for  the  purpose,  and, 

July  6.  passing  down  Lake  George,  landed  near  its  outlet.  The 
van,  advancing  in  some  confusion  through  the  woods, 
encountered  a  French  scouting  party  which  had  also 
lost  its  way,  and  a  skirmish  ensued,  in  which  fell  Lord 
Howe,  a  young  officer  who  had  made  himself  very  pop- 
ular with  the  provincials,  and  to  whose  memory  Massa- 
chusetts erected  a  monument  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

Ticonderoga  was  held  by  some  two  thousand  French 
soldiers.  As  re-enforcements  were  said  to  be  approach- 


FOURTH  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  483 

ing,  Abercrombie,  without  waiting  for  his  artillery,  rash-  CHAPTER 

ly  ordered  an  assault.    -  The  rear  and-  sides  of  the  fort 1_ 

were  covered  by  water,  and  the  front  by  a  morass.  The  1758. 
storming  party  were  ordered  to  rush  swiftly  through  the  July  8- 
enemy's  fire,  reserving  their  own.  till  they  had  passed 
the  breastwork.  But  that  breastwork  was  nine  feet 
high,  much  stronger  than  was  expected,  and  guarded,  in 
addition,  by  trees  felled,  with  their  branches  sharpened, 
and  pointing  outward  like  so  many  lances  against  the 
assailants.  After  a  four  hours'  struggle,  and  the  Joss  in 
killed  and  wounded  of  two  thousand  men,  Abercrombie 
abandoned  the  attack,  and  the  next  day  made  a  precip- 
itate and  disorderly  retreat  to  Fort  William  Henry. 
Among  the  wounded  was  Charles  Lee,  then  a  captain 
in  the  British  service,  afterward  first  major  general  of 
the  revolutionary  army.  In  consequence  of  this  defeat, 
Abercrombie  was  superseded,  and  the  command-in-chief 
given  to  Arnherst. 

Though  no  further  attempt  was  made  on  Ticonderoga, 
Abercrombie's  forces  were  not  wholly  idle.  With  a  de- 
tachment of  three  thousand  men,  chiefly  provincials  qf 
New  York  and  New  England,  Bradstreet  marched  to 
Oswego,  embarked  there  irr  vessels  already  provided, 
and,  having  ascended  the  lake,  landed  at  Fort  Frontenac. 
That  place  was  untenable.  The  feeble  garrison,  taken 
entirely  by  surprise,  speedily  surrendered.  Nine  armed  Aug.  25. 
vessels  were  captured ;  and  the  fort,  with  a  large  store 
of  provisions,  was  destroyed.  Bradstreet's  loss  by  the 
enemy  was  inconsiderable ;  but  not  less  than  five  hund- 
red men  perished  by  sickness.  These  troops,  on  their 
return,  assisted  in  building  Fort  Stanwix,  intermediate 
between  Oswego  and  Albany,  on  the  site  now  occupied 
by  the  flourishing  village  of  Rome.  Among  the  officers 
under  Bradstreet  were  Woodhull,  who  fell  nineteen  years 


484  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

'  .£> 
CHAPTER  afterward  on  Long  Island,  and  Van  Schaick,  afterward 

a  colonel  in  the  New  York  revolutionary  line. 

17.58.  The  expedition  against  Fort  Du  Quesne  had  been 
committed  to  General  Forbes,  with  an  army  of  seven 
thousand  men,  including  the  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia 
levies,  the  Royal  Americans  recalled  from  South  Caroli- 
na, and  an  auxiliary  force  of  Cherokee  Indians.  The  Vir- 
ginia troops. were  concentrated  at  Cumberland,  and  those 
of  Pennsylvania  at  Raystowrr,  on  the  south7 branch  of  the 
Juniata.  Washington  advised  to  march  from  Cumber- 
land along  the  road  cut  by  Braddock's  -army  ;  but,  un- 
der the  advice  of  some  Pennsylvania  land  speculators, 
Forbes  ordered  a  new  road  to  be  opened  from  Raystown. 
With  a  division  of , two  thousand  five  hundred  men,  Bou- 
quet, who  commanded  the  advance,  presently  reached 
Loyal  Hanna,  on  the  Kiskiminitas,  the  south  branch 
of  the  Allegany.  Major  Grant,  with  eight  hundred 
men,  sent  forward  from  Loyal  Hanna  to  reconnoiter, 
Sept/ 15.  was  surprised  and  driven  back,  with  the  loss  of  three 
hundred  men,  being  himself  taken  prisoner.  vThe  enemy 
Oct.  12.  presently  attacked  Bouquet  in  his  camp,  but  were  re- 
pulsed by  the  artillery.  The  obstacles  along  the  new 
route  proved  very  serious ;  and  the  Virginia  Assembly, 
in  a  state  of  discouragement,  resolved  to  withdraw  a 
Nov.  8.  part  of  their  troops.  Forbes  at  last  joined  Bouquet  with 
the  main  body  and  the  heavy  baggage.  But  the  army, 
weakened  by  desertion  and  dispirited  by  sickness,  was 
*  still  fifty  miles  from  Fort  Du  Qucsne,  and  separated 
from  it  by  an  immense  forest  without  a  road.  Winter 
also  was  close  at  hand.  A  council  of  war  advised  the 
abandonment  of  the  enterprise ;  but,  before  any  retro- 
grade motion  was  made,  three  prisoners,  accidentally 
Nov.  12.  taken,. revealed  the  feebleness  of  the  enemy.  The  blow 
struck  by  Bradstreet  at  Fort  Frontenac  had  been  felt 


FOURTH  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  495 

on  the  Ohio  in  the  failure  of  expected  supplies,  and  the  CHAPTER 

XXVII 

French,  in  consequence,  had  been  deserted  by  the  greater '__ 

part  of  their  Indian  allies.-  Inspired  with  fresh  ardor,  1758. 
and  leaving  baggage  and  artillery  behind,  the  troops,  in 
spite  of  obstacles,  pushed  forward,  at  a  rate,  however,  of 
less  than,  ten  miles  a  day.  The  day  before  they  reached 
the  fort,  the  French  garrison,  reduced  to  less  than  five 
hundred  men,  set  fire  to  the  works,  and  retired  down  Nov.  24. 
the  river.  A  detachment  of  four  hundred  and  fifty  men 
was  left  to  hold  this  important  post,  for  the  possession  of 
which  the  war  had  commenced,  and  which  was  now 
named  Fort  Pitt  by  the  captors.  The  rest  of  the  army 
hastened  to  return  before  the  setting  in  of  winter.' 
Fruits  of  this  conquest  were  speedily  realized  in  the^  in- 
clination of  the  neighboring  Indians  for  peace.  Virginia 
and  Maryland  were  now  relieved  from  Indian  incursions. 
Already  a  treaty  had  been  held  at  Easton  with  the  Six 
Nations  and  their  dependent  tribes,  the  Delawares  and 
others,  by  which  all  existing  difficulties  had  been  finally 
settled?  and  peace  once  more  restored  to  the  frontiers  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Only  the  Eastern  Indians  still  remained  hostile.  -To 
hold  them  in  check,  and  to  cut  off  their  communication 
with  Canada,  Fort  Pownall  was  presently  built  on  the 
Penobscot,  the  first  permanent  English  occupation  of 
that  region. 

The  perseverance  of  the  Pennsylvania  Assembly  tri- 
umphed at  last.  Tired  of  struggling  on  unpaid — for 
they  resolutely  refused  to  vote  him  any  salary  unless  he 
would  come  to  their  terms — Governor  Denny  consented 
to  a  tax  act  in  which  the  proprietary  estates  were  in»- 
eluded.  The  Assembly  had  indemnified  him  againsi 
the  forfeiture  of  the  bond  by  which  he  had  botind  him- 
self to  obey  his  instructions,  and  they  rewarded  this 


486  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAP-TOR  and  other  compliances  by  liberal  grants  of  salary.      But 

XXVII. 

c_this  violation  of  his  instructions  very  soon  cost  Denny 

175£.  his  office. 

Seconded  by  an  eager  Parliament,  Pitt  resolved  to  fol- 
low up  the  successes  of  ihe  late  campaign  by  an  attack 
on  Canada — an  intention  communicated  under  an  oath 
of  secrecy  to  the  colonial  Assemblies.  Stimulated  by 
the  prompt  reimbursement  of  their  last  year's  expenses 
to  the  amount  of  near  a  million  of  dollars,  the  Assem- 
blies acted  with  promptitude  and  energy.  With  the 
.opening  of  the  spring-  twenty  thousand  colonial  soldiers 
were  again  in  the  field,  and  to  enable  the  commissariat 
department,  which  found  it  difficult  to  Sell  bills  on  the 
British  treasury,  to  provide  provisions  for  the  troops,  the 
Assemblies  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  advanced  a 
large  sum  in,  paper  money. 

The  plan  now  adopted  for  the  conquest  of  Canada 
was  not  materially  different  from  that  which  Phipps  and 
Warren  had  successively  failed  to  execute.  Amherst  ad- 
vanced by  Way  of  Lake  Champlain  with  twelve  thousand 
regulars  and  provincials ;  Wolfe,  a  young  general  who 
had  distinguished  himself  at  the  siege  of  Louisburg,  hav- 
ing sailed  early  in  the  spring  from  England,  escorted 
June,  by  a  powerful  fleet,  made  his  appearance  in  the  St.  Law- 
rence with  an  army  of  eight  thousand  regular  troops  in 
three  brigades,  commanded  by  Moncton,  Townshend,  and 
Murray.  The  danger  of  Quebec  caused  the  withdrawal 
of  the  garrisons  of  Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point,  and 
July,  both  those  places  soon,  without  any  serious  struggle,  pass- 
ed into  Amherst' s  hands. 

According  to  the  schenie  of  operations,  Amherst  should 
have  proceeded  down  L'ake  Champlain  to  join  Wolfe  be. 
fore  Quebec,  or,  at  least,  to  effect  a  diversion  by  attack- 
ing Montreal ;  but  the  want  of  vessels  rendered  this  move- 


FOURTH  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  4$? 

ment  -impossible.      With  Amherst  was  a  body  of  New  CHAPTER 

t  XXVII 

Hampshire  Rangers,  under  Major  Rogers,  distinguished  _____ 
as  a  partisan  officer,  in  whose  corps  served  as  captain  1759. 
John  Stark,  a  brigadier  afterward  in  the  revolutionary 
army.  Two  hundred  of  these  rangers  were  detached  Sept. 
from  Crown  Point  against  the  Indian  village  of  St.  Fran- 
cis, whose  inhabitants  had  long  been  the  terror  of  the 
New  England  frontier.  Enriched  by  plunder  and  the 
ransom  of  their  captives,  these  Indians  had  a  handsome 
Catholic  chapel,  with  plate  and  ornaments.  Their  vil- 
lage was  adorned  by  numerous  scalps,  trophies  of  victo- 
ry, stretched  on  hoops,  and  elevated  on  poles.  The  rang- 
ers accomplished  their  march  through  the  woods,  and  took 
the  village  entirely  by  surprise-  A  large  part  of  the  Oct. 
warriors  were  slain;  the  village- — as  had  happened  so 
often  in  New  England — was  first  plundered,  and  then 
burned.  Their  object  thus  accomplished,  fearing  lest 
their  trail  from  Crown  Point  might  be  watched,  the  vic- 
tors attempted  to  return  by  way  of  Lake  Memphrema- 
gog  and  the  Connecticut.  But  their-  provisions  fell  short ; 
some  perished  for  want  of  food  ;  some  were  killed  by  the 
pursuing  Indians.  The  greater  part,  however,  reached, 
at  last,  the  uppermost  settlements  on  the  Connecticut, 
just  below  Bellows  Falls,  and  thence  made  good  their 
retreat  to  Crown  Point.  ' 

In  pursuance  of  the  original  plan  of  campaign,  a  third 
army,  composed  principally  of  provincials,  and  command- 
ed by  General  Prideaux,  had  been  collected  at  Qswego  far' 
an  attack  on  Niagara.     Notwithstanding  the  late  treaty 
of  neutrality,  the  influence  of  Sir  William  Johnson  had 
induced  a  large  body  of  warriors  of  the  Six  Nations  to 
join  this  army.      After  a  prosperous  voyage  from  Os- 
wego,  Prideaux  landed  at  Niagara  and  opened  his  bat-  July  7. 
teries,  but  was  soon  killed  by  the  bursting  of  a  gun, 


488  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  when  Johnson  succeeded  to  the  chief  command.     Twelve 

V"V"\7TT 

hundred  French  regulars,  drawn  from  the  western  posts, 

1759.  and  followed  by  <an  equal  force  of  Indian  auxiliaries, 
advanced  to  raise  the  siege.  Aware  of  their  approach, 
Johnson  took  an  advantageous  position  in  advance  of 
July  23.  the  fort.  ,  The  relieving  force  was  totally  routed,  and  a 
large  part  taken  prisoners.  The  fort  surrendered  the 
next  day,  and  six  Jiundred  men  with  it.  According  to 
the  plan  of  operations,  Johnson  should  have  descended 
Lake  Ontario  to  co-operate  on  the  v  St.  Lawrence  with 
Arnherst , and  Wolfe-;  .but  the  want  of  proper  shipping, 
the  small  supply  of  provisions,  and  the  incumbrance  of 
the  French  prisoners,  prevented  him  from  doing  so. 

Deprived  thus  of  all  co-operation,  Wolfe  was  left  to  be- 
siege Quebec  alone.  Occupying  a  point  of  land  on  the 
north  shore  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  protected  on  the  south 
by  that  river,  and  on  the  north  by  the  tributary  stream 
of  the  St.  Charles,  Quebec  consisted  then,  as  now,  of  an 
upper  and  a  lower  town,  both  regularly  fortified.  The 
lower  town  was*  built  on  a  narrow  beach  at  the  water's 
edge,  above  which  rose  the  Heights  of  Abraham,  ari  al- 
most perpendicular  range  of  lofty  rocks,  forming  the  river 
banks.  On  the  level  of  these  heights  stretched  a  wide 
plain,  on  which  the  upper  town  was  built.  Overhang- 
ing the  St.  Lawrence,  and  extending  for  a  great  distance 
^bove  the  town,  the  heights  seemed  to  afford  on  that 
side  an  '  almost  impregnable  defense.  Several  floating 
batteries  and  armed  vessels  were  moored  in  the  St. 
Chatlesj-and  beyond  it,  in  a  camp  strongly  intrenched, 
and  covered  by  the  -Montmorency,  another  and  larger 
river,  which  enters  the  St.  Lawrence  a  short  distance 
below  Quebec,  lay  Montcalm's  army,  almost  equal  in 
numbers  to  that  of  Wolfe,  but  composed  largely  of  Ca- 
nadians and  Indians.  Every  exertion  had  been  made  for 


FOURTH  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  439 

the  defense  of  the  city,  but  the  supply  of  provisions  was  CHAPTER 
very  limited.  

Wolfe  had  landed  on  the  fertile  island  of  Orleans,  just  1759. 
below  the  city.      His  naval  superiority  gave  him  full  June  27t 
command  of  the  river.      After  a  slight  skirmish,, he  gain- 
ed possession  of  Point  Levi,  held  by   a  body  of  French 
troops,  on  the  south  bank  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  opposite 
Quebec,  where  he  erected  batteries,  whfeh  set  fire  to  and 
destroyed  the  Cathedral  and  many  houses,  but  the  dis- 
tance was  too  great  for  any  effect  on  the  fortifications. 
Wolfe  then  landed  on  the  opposite  bank  below  the  town,   July  8. 
intending  to  force  the  passage  of  the  Montmorency,  and 
to  bring  Montcalm  to  an  action.     The  French  were  very 
strongly  posted,  and  the  impetuosity  of  Wolfe's  advanced 
party,  which  rushed  to  the  attack  before  support  was  July  31. 
ready,  obliged  him  to  retire  with  a  loss  of  five  hundred 
men. 

An  attempt  was  then  made  to  destroy  the  French 
shipping,  and  to  alarm  and  draw  out  the  garrison  by  de- 
scents above  the  town.  One  valuable  magazine  was  de- 
stroyed, a  great  many  houses  were  burned,  much  plunder 
was  made,  but  it  was  impossible  to  cut  out  the  French 
ships.  To  guard  against  future  attacks,  Montcalm  sent 
De  Bougainville  up  the  river  with  fifteen  hundred  men. 

The  prospect  was  very  discouraging.  The  'season  for 
action  was  fast  passing.  Nothing  had  been  heard  of  the 
forces  designed  to  co-operate  from  the  side  of  New  York 
except  reports  from  the  enemy  of  the  retreat  of  Am- 
herst.  Though  suffering  from  severe  illness,  instead  of 
despairing,  Wolfe  embraced  the  bold  proposal  of  his  prin- 
cipal officers  to  scale  the  Heights  of  Abraham,  and  thus 
to  approach  the  city  on  the  side  where  its  defenses-  were 
feeblest.  Above  Quebec  there  was  a  narrow  beach  suf- 
ficient to  afford  a  practicable  landing  place  ;  but  it  might 


490  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  easily  be  missed  in  the  dark  ;  and  the  heights  rose  so 
'  steep  above  it,  that  even  by  daylight  and  unopposed,  the 

1759.  ascent  was  matter  of  hazard  and  difficulty.  Should  the 
French  be  on  their  guard,  repulse  was  inevitable. 

S«pt.  12.  The  army,  placed  on  ship-board,  moved  up  the  river 
several  miles  beyond  the  proposed  landing-place.  To 
distract  attention  and  conceal  the  real  design,  a  show 
was  made  of  disembarking  at  several  points.  When 
night  had  set  in,  flat-bottomed  boats,  with  the  soldiers  on 
board,  fell  down  the  river  with  the  tide,  and,  carefully 
avoiding  the  French  sentinels,  succeeded  in  finding  the 
beach.  The  light  troops  were  led  by  Colonel  Howe, 
afterward  Sir  William,  and  commander-in-chief  of  the 
British  armies  in  America.  Assisted  by  the  rugged  pro- 
jections of  the  rocks  and  the  branches  of  trees,  they  made 
their  way  up  the  heights,  and,  having  dispersed  a  small 
force  stationed  there,  covered  the  ascent  of  the  main 

Sept.  13.  body.  Early  in  the  morning,  the  whole  British  army 
appeared  drawn  up  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham.  To  meet 
this  unexpected  movement,  Montcalm  put  his  troops  in 
motion.  Nothing  now  but  a  victory  could  prevent  a 
siege  and  save  the  city.  He  advanced,  accordingly,  in 
order  of  battle.  Bodies  of  Indians  and  Canadians  in  his 
front  kept  up  an  irregular  but  galling  fire.  Wolfe  gave 
orders  to  disregard  these  skirmishers,  and  to  wait  the 
approach  of  the  main  body.  The  French  had  arrived 
within  forty  yards  of  the  English,  when  their  advance 
was  checked, by  a  heavy  fire  of  musketry  and  grape. 
Eight  or  ten  six-pounders,  dragged  up  the  heights  by 
the  seamen,  were  brought  into  line  after  the  action -be- 
gan. The  French  appear  to  have  had  but  two  small 
field-pieces.  The  battle  raged  fiercest  on  the  right  of 
the  ^English  and  the  left  of  the  French,  where  the  two 
generals  were  respectively  stationed  opposite  each  other. 


FOURTH  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  49^ 

Though  already  twice  wounded,  "Wolfe  gave  orders  for  CHAPTER 

the  charge.     He  fell,  wounded  a  third  time,  and  mortal- 

ly ;  but  the  grenadiers  still  advanced.  The  French,'  1759. 
close  pressed  by  the  English  bayonets  and  the  broad- 
swords of  the  Scotch  Highland  regiments,  began  to  give 
way.  To  complete  their  confusion,  Montcalm  fell  with 
a  mortal  wound.  The  whole  French  line  was  soon  in 
disorder.  Five  hundred  Frenchmen  were  killed  ;„  a 
thousand,  including  the  wounded,  were  taken  prisoners. 
The  English  loss  amounted  to  six  hundred  killed  and 
wounded.  A  part  of  the  dispersed  army  escaped  into  the 
town,  but  the  bulk  of  the  fugitives  retired  across  the  St. 
Charles.  Hardly  was  the  battle  over  when  De  Bougain- 
ville made  his  appearance,  marching  hastily  down  the 
river.  An  hour  or  two  sooner,  and  he  might  have 
changed  the  fortune  of  the  day.  As  it  was,  after  col- 
lecting the  fugitives  from  behind  the  St.  Charles,  he'  re- 
tired again  up  the  St.  Lawrence. 

Preparations  for  besieging  the  city  were  commenced 
by  Townshend,  whom  Wolfe's  death  and  Moncton's  se- 
vere wound  had  made  commander-in-chief,  but  through 
lack  of  provisions  it  surrendered' on  capitulation  five  Sept.  18. 
days  after  the  battle- — the  regulars  to  be  sent  to  France, 
the  inhabitants  to  be  guaranteed  their  property  and  re- 
ligion. General  Murray,  with  five  thousand  men,,  was 
left  in  garrison.  The  fleet,  with  the  sick  and  the 
French  prisoners,  hastened  to  anticipate  the  approach- 
ing frost  by  retiring  to  Halifax,  where  the  ships  were  to 
winter. 

The  Cherokees,  who  had  accompanied  Forbes  in  his 
expedition  against  Fort  Du  Quesne,  returning  home 
along  the  mountains,  had  involved  themselves  in  quar- 
rels with  the  back  settlers  of  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas, 
in  which  several,  both  Indians  and  white  men,  had  been 


492  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  killed.      Some  chiefs,  who  had  proceeded  to  Charleston  to 

___ _  arrange  this ,  dispute,  were  received  by  Governor  Little- 

17'59.  tori  in  very  haughty  style,  and  he  presently  marched  into 
Oct     the.  Cherokee  country  at  .the  head  of  fifteen   hundred 
men,  contributed  by  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas,  demand- 
ing the  surrender  of  the  murderers  of  the  English.     He 
was  soon   glad,  however,  of  any  •  apology   for   retiring. 
His    troops   proved  very   insubordinate ;   the   small-pox 
broke  out  amon£  them;   and,  having  accepted  twenty- 
two  Indian  hostages  as  i  security  for  peace  and  the  future 
1760.  delivery  of  the  murderers,  he  broke, up  his  camp,,  and 
an'     fell  back  in  haste  and  confusion. 

The  hostages,  including  several  principal  chiefs  and 
warriors,  were  placed  for  safe .  keeping  in  Fort  Prince 
George,  at  the  head  of  the  Savannah.  No  sooner  was 
Littleton's  army  gone,  than  the  Cherokees  attempted  to 
entrap  into  their"  power  the  commander  of  that  post,  and, 
apprehensive  of  some  plan  for  the  rescue  of  the  hostages, 
he  gave, orders,  to  put  them  in  irons.  They  resisted; 
and  a  soldier  having  been  wounded  in  the  struggle,  his 
infuriated  companions  fell-  upon  the  prisoners  and  put 
them  all  to  death.  Indignant  at  this  outrage,  the  Cher- 
okees beleaguered  the  fort,  and  sent,  out  war  parties  in 
every  direction  to  attack  the  frontiers.  The  Assembly 
,of  South  Carolina,  in  great  alarm,  voted  a  thousand 
men,  and  offered  a  premium  of  £25  for  every  Indian 
scalp.  ,  North  Carolina  offered  a  similar  premium,  and 
authorized,  in  addition,  the  holding  of  Indian  captives  as 
slaves.  An  express,  asking  assistance,  was  sent  to  Gen- 
eral Amherst,  wljo  detached  twelve  hundred  men,  under 
Colonel  Montgomery,  chiefly  Scotch  Highlanders,  lately 
stationed  on  the  western  frontier,  with  orders  to  make  a 
dash  at  the  Cherokees,  but  to  return  in  season  for  the 
next  campaign  against  Canada. 


FOURTH  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  493 

Promoted  to  the  government  of  Jamaica,  Littleton  had  CHAPTER 

resigned  the  administration  of  South  Carolina  to  Will-  _+ 1 

iam  Bull,  the  lieutenant  governor,  a  native  of  the  proy-  1760. 
ince,  whose  father,  of  the  same  name,  had  formerly  ad- 
ministered the  government  as  president  of  the  council. 
Bull,  a  man  of  talents  and  character,  had  received  at 
Ley  den  a  medical  degree— the  first,  or  one  of  the  first, 
ever  obtained  by  a  native  Anglo-American.  With  some 
short  intervals,  during  which  Thomas  Boone,  Lord  Charles 
Montague,  and  Lord  William  Campbell  acted  as  govern- 
ors, he  continued,  as  lieutenant  governor,  at  the  head  of 
affairs -till  S6uth  Carolina  ceased  to  be  a  British  province. 

Joining  his  forces  with  the  provincial  levies j  Mont- 
gomery entered  the  Cherokee  country,  raised  the  block- 
ade of  Port  Prince  George,  and,  ravaged  the  neighboring 
district.  Marching  then  upon  Etchoe,  the  chief  village 
of  the  Middle  Cherokees,  within  five  miles  of  that 
place  he  encountered  a  large  body  of  Indians,  strongly  June  27. 
posted  in  a  difficult  defile,  from  which  they  were  only 
driven  after  a  very  severe  struggle ;  or,  according  -to 
other  accounts,  Montgomery  was  himself  repulsed.  At 
all  events,  he  retired  to  Charleston,  and,  in  obedience 
to  his  orders,  prepared  to  embark  for  service  at  the  north. 
When  this  determination  became  known,  the  province 
was  thrown  into. the  utmost  consternation.  The  As- 
sembly declared  themselves  unable  to  raise  men  to  pro- 
tect the  frontiers;  and  a  detachment  of  four  hundred 
regulars  was  presently  conceded  to'  Bull's  earnest  solici- 
tations. 

During  the  pressure  of  the  war  with  the  Western  In- 
dians, as  one  means  of  raising  supplies,  the  Assembly  of 
Virginia,  by  two  or  three  successive  acts,  had  carried  the 
five  per  cent,  standing  duty  on  imported  slaves  as  high 
as  twenty  per  cent.  ,  This .  duty  having  "  been  found 


494  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  very  burdensome  to  the  fair  purchaser,  a  great  disad- 

XXVIT 

.  vantage  to  the  settlement-  and  improvement  of  the  lands 

1760.  in  the  colony,  introductive  of  many  frauds,  and  not  to 

answer  the  encl  thereby  intended,  inasmuch  as  the  same 

prevents  the  importation  of  slaves,  and  thereby  lessens 

May.  the  fund  arising  from  the  duty,"  it  was  now  reduced  to 
ten  per  cent. — a  positive  and  distinct  legislative  asser- 
tion, notwithstanding  what  Jefferson  has  represented  to 
the  contrary,  that  the  Virginia  duty  on  slaves  was  im- 
posed for  revenue  only. 

The  proprietaries  of  Pennsylvania,  disgusted  at  Den- 
ny's faithlessness,  had  prevailed  upon  Hamilton  to  ac- 
cept again  the  office  of  deputy  governor.  But,  to  >b- 
tain  means  for  furnishing  the  quota  of  that  province 
toward  the  approaching  campaign,  he  was  obliged,  like 
his  predecessor,  to  consent  to  a  tax  on  the  proprietary 
estates.  Bound  by  the  consent  of  their  deputy,  though 
given  against  their  instruction — for  such  was  the  con- 
stitutional doctrine  established  in  Pennsylvania — the 
Penns  petitioned  for  the  royal  veto  on  eleven  acts  which 
Denny  had  passed,  including  the  tax  act  above  referred 
to.  'Franklin,  as  agent  for  the  Assembly  on  the  one 

lune.  hand,  and  the  proprietaries  on  the  other,  were  heard  by 
their  counsel  before  the  Board  of  Trade.  In  giving  their 
decision,  the  Lords  of  Trade  commented  in  very-  severe 
terms  on  the  collusion  between  the  Assembly  and  Denny, 
evinced  by  a  grant  to  the  governor  of  a  distinct  sum  of 
money  for  consenting  to  each  of  these  eleven  obnoxious 
acts.  The  other  acts  were  disallowed;  but,  on  the 
great  point  of  the  right  to  tax  the  proprietary  estates, 
the  Assembly  triumphed.  The  Board  of  Trade  required, 
indeed,  certain  modifications  of  the  act,  to  which  Frank- 
lin readily  assented  on  behalf  of  the  province.  The  As- 
sembly gave  him  a  vote  of  thanks ;  but  they  hesitated 


FOURTH  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  .       495 

in .  fulfilling  the  agreement  he   had  made ;  -nor  was  it  CHAPTER 
long  before  the  dispute  with  the  proprietaries  broke  out  ______ 

with  more  violence  than  ever.  .  1760. 

After  the  fall  of  Quebec,  Vaudreuil,  the  governor  gen- 
eral of  Canada,  had  concentrated  all  his  forces  at  Mon- 
treal, and,  during  the  winter,  had  made  every  possible 
preparation  for  attempting  the  recovery  of  the  capital 
before  the  garrison  could  be  relieved.  As  soon  as  the 
melting  of  the  ice  would  permit,  M.  De  Levi  advanced 
for  that  purpose  with  ten  thousand  men.  The  English 
garrison  had  suffered  during  the  winter  for  want  of 
fresh  provisions.  A  thousand  soldiers  had  died  of  the 
scurvy.  Murray  could  hardly  muster  three  thousand 
men  fit  for  duty.  Anxious,  however,  to  avoid  a  siege, 
and  trusting  to  his  superior  discipline,  he  marched  out, 
and  gave  battle  at  Sillery .  He  was  beaten,  'however,  April  26. 
with  the  loss  of-  all  his  artillery  and  a  thousand  men, 
was  driven  back  to  Quebec,  and  besieged  there.  Some 
ships,  dispatched  from  England  very  early  in  the  season, 
presently  arrived  with  supplies,  anticipating  not  only  the  May  9. 
Flench  fleet,  but  the  English  squadron  also  which  had 
wintered  at  Halifax.  Alarmed  at  their  appearance,  and 
supposing  that  the  whole  English  fleet  had  arrived,  M. 
De  Levi  gave  over  the  siege,  and  retired  precipitately  to  May  10. 
Montreal.  Against  this  last  stronghold  of  the  enemy 
all  efforts  were  now  directed.  Anxious  to  complete  the 
conquest  of  Canada,  the  northern  colonies  zealously  con- 
tributed. 

Three  armies  were  soon  in  motion.  Amherst,  at  the 
head  often  thousand  men,  besides  a  thousand  Indians  of. 
the  Six  Nations  led  by  Johnson,  embarked  at  Oswego, 
and  sailed  down  the  lake  and  the  St.  Lawrence  to  Mont- 
real, where  he  was  met  by  Murray  with  four  thousand  Sept.  5. 
men  from  Quebec.  Haviland  arrived  the  next  day,  with 


496  HISTORY    OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  a  third  army  of  three  thousand  five  hundred  men.  by 

XXVH 

___^_  way  of  Lake  Champlain.  The  force  thus  assembled  was 
1760.  quite  overwhelming.  Resistance  was,  not  to  be  thought 
of.  The  French  governor  signed  a  capitulation,  by  which 
he  gave  up  not  only  Montreal,  but  Presque  Isle,  Detroit, 
Mackinaw,  and  all  the  other  posts  of  Western  Canada. 
The  regular  troops,  about  four  thousand  men,  were  to  be 
sent  to  France.  The  Canadians  were  guaranteed  their 
property  and  worship. 

Nowhere  was  the  general  joy  of  the  colonies  at  the 
conquest  of  Canada  more  enthusiastically  felt  than  'in 
New  York,1  of  which  the  northern  and  western  limits  had 
so  long  been  in  dispute  with  the  French.  New  York 
had  indeed,  in  those  directions,  no  definite  boundary, 
though  the-  Assembly  had  been  accustomed  to.  claim,  by 
virtue  of  alleged  cessions  from  the  Six  Nations^  as  far 
north  as  the  outlet  of  Lake  Champlain,  and  the  whole 
peninsula  between  Lakes  Ontario  and  Huron — preten- 
sions extended,  indeed,  even  to- the  peninsula  of  Michigan, 
and  beyond  it. 

July  30.  .  By  the  sudden  death  of  Delancey,  the  administration 
of  New  York  had  devolved  on  Cadwallader  Colden,  who 
was  presently  appointed  lieutenant  governor.  Though 
now  upward  of  seventy  years  of  age,  .Golden  continued 
in  that  office  for  sixteen  years  ;  and,  in  consequence  of 
the  frequent  absence  of  the  governors,  was  repeatedly  at 
the  head  of  affairs. 

Great,  too,  was  the  exultation  in  New  England,  whose 
eastern  and  northern  frontiers  were  now  finally  delivered 
.  from  that  scourge  of  Indian  warfare  by  which  they  had 
been  visited  .six  time;s  within  the  preceding  eighty-five 
years.  The  Indians  themselves,  by  these  successive  con- 
tests, had  been  almost  annihilated.  Most  of  the  hostile 
tribes  had  emigrated  to  Canada,  or  else  Were  extinct. 


FOURTH  INTERCOLONIAL  WAR.  497 

There  remained  only   a  small  band   of  Penobscots,  on  CHAPTER 

*    '                                       Xxvir 
whom  was  bestowed  a  limited  reservation,  still  possessed.  _, 

by  their  degenerate  descendants.  I,  1760. 

While  the  northern  colonies  exulted  in  safety,   the' 
Cherokee  war  still  kept  the  frontiers  of  Carolina  in  alarm. 
Left  to  themselves  by  the  withdrawal  of  Montgomery, 
the  Upper  Cherokees  had  beleaguered  Fort  Loudon.    Aft- 
er living  for  some  time  on  ^horse-flesh,  the  garrison,  un- 
der a  promise  of  safe^conduct  to  the  settlements,  had 
been  induced  to  surrender.      But  this  promise  was  bro-  Aug.  7. 
ken  ;   attacked  -on  the  way,  a  part  were  killed,  and  the 
rest  detained  as  prisoners ;   after  which,  the  Indians  di- 
rected all  their  fury  against  the  frontiers.     On  a  new 
application  presently  made  to  Amherst  for  assistance, 
the  Highland  regiment,  now  commanded  by  Grant,  was  1761. 
ordered  back  to  Carolina. 

New  levies  were  also  made  in  the  province^  and  Grant 
presently  marched  into  the  Cheroke'e  country  with  two 
thousand  six  hundred  men.  In  a  second  battle,  near  the  June  10. 
same  spot  with  the  fight  of  the  previous  year,  the  In- 
dians were  driven  back  with  loss.  Etchoe,  with  the 
other  villages  of  the  Middle  Cherokees,  was  plundered 
and  burned,  and  all  the  growing,  corn  destroyed.  The 
Indians  took  refuge  in  the  defiles  of  the  mountains,  and, 
subdued  and  humbled,  sued  -for  peace.  As  the  condi- 
tion on  which  alone  it  would  be  granted,  they  were  re- 
quired to  deliver  up  four  warriors  to  be  shot  at  the  head 
of  the  army,  or  to  furnish  four  green  Indian  scalps  with- 
in twenty  days.  A  personal  application  to  Governor 
Bull,  by  an  old , -chief  long  known  for  his  attachment  to 
the  English,  procured  a  relinquishment  of  this  brutal  de- 
mand, and  peace  was  presently  made  without  any  further 
effusion  of  blood. 

The  English  arms  were  thus  every  where  triumphant ; 

ni— 1 1 


498         HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  but  as  the  French  might  attempt  the  reconquest  of  Can- 
'    ada,  the  colonies  were  still  required  to  keep  up  their  quo- 

1761.  tas  at  two  thirds  .of  the  former  amount.-  The  French 
officers  in  Canada,  in  the  course  of  the  war,  had  been 
guilty  of  immense  peculations.  There  was  outstanding, 
in  unpaid  bills  on  France,  and  in  card  or  paper  money, 
more  than  twenty  millions  of  dollars,  a  large  portion  of 
it,  as  the  French  court  contended, ;  fraudulently  issued. 
But  a  very  small  indemnity  was  ever  obtained  by  the 
holders  of  this  paper,  the  payment  of  which  had  been  sus- 
pended immediately  after  the  capture  of  Quebec,  , 

1760.  Saving  obtained  an  appointment  as  governor  of  South 
Carolina,  on  which,  however,  he  never'  entered,  after-  a 
very  popular  administration,  Pownall  had  been  succeed- 

Aug.  4.  ed  as  governor  of  Massachusetts  by  Francis  Bernard, 
late  governor  of  New  Jersey,  where  Thomas  Boone,  and, 
on  his  speedy  removal  to  South  Carolina,  Josiah  Hardy, 
supplied  his  place. 

The  British  merchants  loudly  complained  >of  a  trade 
carried  on  by  the  northern  colonies  not  only  with  the 
neutral  ports^of  St.  Thomas  and  Eustatius,  but  directly 
with  the  French  islands,  under  flags  of  truce  granted  by 
the  Colonial'  governors  nominally  for  an  exchange  of  pris- 
oners, but  intended,  in  fact,  as  mere  covers  for  a  com- 
merce, whereby  the  French  fleets,  garrisons,  and  islands 
in  the  West  Indies  were  supplied  with  provisions  and  other 
necessaries*  Pitt  had  issued  strict  orders  to  put  a  stop  to 
this  trade;  but  it  was  too  profitable  to  be  easily  suppress- 
ed. The  colonists  indeed  maintained  that  it  was  policy 
to  make  as  much  money  out  of  the  enemy  as  possible,  and 
they  cited  the  example  of  the  Dutch,  who  had  fought  the 
Spaniards  and  traded  with  them  at  the  same  time. 

Bernard,  a  .great  stickler  for  the  authority  of  the 
mother  country,  found  an  able  coadjutor  in  Thomas 


WRITS    OF   ASSISTANCE.  499 

Hutchinson,  late  speaker  of  the  House  .of  Representa-  CHAPTER 

XXVII 

tives,  and  now  a  counselor,  *  whose  zeal  for  the  crown 

and  appetite  for  emolument  had  been  rewarded  by  the  176-1. 
office  of  judge  of  probate  for  Suffolk  county,  and,  pti 
Phipps's  death,  by  the  post  of  lieutenant  governor^, to 
which  was  now  added  the  place  of  chief  justice,  much 
to  the  disappointment  of  Otis,  Hutchinson's  successor  as 
speaker,  to  whom  Pownall  had  promised  a  seat  on  the 
bench.  The  strict  enforcement  of  the  acts  of  trade  at- 
tempted by  Bernard  had  provoked  a  strenuous  opposition, 
and  the  custom-house  officers  had  applied  to  the  Supe- 
rior Court  to  grant  them  writs  of  assistance,  according 
to  the  English  exchequer  practice — warrants,  that  is, 
to  search,  when  and  where  they  pleased,  for  smuggled 
goods,  and  to  call  in  the  aid  of  others  to  assist  them. 
To  oppose  the  issue  of  these  writs,  the  merchants  retain- 
ed Oxenbridge  Thatcher  and  James  Otis.  Thatcher  was 
a  leading  practitioner  in  Boston.  Otis,  son  of  the  speak- 
er, a  young  lawyer  of  brilliant  talents  and  ardent  tem- 
perament, was  advocate  of  the  Admiralty,  and  in  that 
capacity  bound  to  argue  for  the  issue  of  the  writs:  But 
he  resigned  his  office,  and  accepted  the  retainer  of  the 
merchants.  Not  content  with  Thatcher's  merely  legal 
and  technical  objections,  Otis  took  high  ground  as  to  the  Feb. 
rights  of  the  colonies.  He  assailed  the  acts  of  trade  as 
oppressive  in  some  instances  and  unconstitutional  in 
others,  and  by  his  vehement  eloquence  gave  a  tone  to 
public  sentiment  not  without  serious  influence  on  Sub- 
sequent events.  The  writs  were  granted,  but  they  were 
so  excessively  unpopular  as  to  be  seldom  used.  Elected 
a  representative  from  Boston,  Otis  became  a  leading  June, 
member  of  the  House,  and  a  warm  opponent  of  Hutchin- 
£on,  whom  he  endeavored  tor  exclude  from  the  council  by 
a  bill  declaring  the  places  of  chief  justice  and  counselor 


500  HISTORY    OJ   T-HE   UNIT-ED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  incompatible  with  each"  .other.  But  Hutchin^on's  influ- 
"  ence  was  considerable,  enough  to  defeat  this  till,  An- 

1.7  6'd':  other.,  which  passed,  requiring  the  oath  of  a  custom-house 

officer  to  justify  the  issue  of  a  writ  of  assistance,  was 

rejected  by  the  governor. 

1760.  ''    The  accession  of  the  young  king,  George  III.,  though 
Oct.  25.  ft  introduced  some  new  members  into  the  cabinet,  had 

made  no  immediate  change  of  policy.     Canada  conquered, 

the  British  arms  had  been  turned ,  against  the  French  isl- 

;  ands  in  the  West  Indies.      Guadaloupe  had  been  already 

1761.  captured.      General   Moncton,   after   producing   to   the 
Nov.  15.  councii  Of  New  York-  his  commission  as  governor,  sailed 

Jfrorn  that  port  with  two  line-of-battle  ships,  a  hundred 
transports,  and  twehre  thousand  regular  and  colonial 

1762.  troops.      Gates  went  with,  him  as  aid-de^camp,  and  car- 
Feb      ried  to  England  the  news  of  the  capture  of  Martinique 

Montgomery,  afterward,  as  well  as  Gates,  a  general  of 
the  revolutionary  army,  held  in  this  expedition  the  rank 
of  captain.  The  coloniaj  troops  were  led  by  General 
Lyman.  The  successes  of  Moncton  were  not  limited  to 
Martinique.  Grenada,  St.  Lucia,  and  St.  Vincent's—- 
every island,  in  fact,  which  the  French  possessed  in  the 
Caribbee  group,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  British. 

The  French  fleet  was  .ruined.  French  merchantmen 
were  driven  from  the  seas.  British  vessels,  including 
many  from  New  York  and  New  England,  acquired'  the 
carrying  trade,  not  of  the  conquered  islands  only,  but. 
under  safe-conducts  and-flags  of  truce,  of  the  larger  and 
more  wealthy  colony 'of  St.  Domingo.  This  lucrative 
commerce,  with  the  profits  of  privateering  and  of  supply- 
ing provisions  for  the  British  fleets  and  armies,  made  .the 
war  very  popular  in  America,  arid  Pitt  an  idol ;  but  that 
'/  great  commoner,"  as  he  delighted  to  be  called,  had 
ceased  to  be  minister. 


AVAR   WITH  SPAIN. 

~> 

Charles  III.,  on, whom  the,  crown  of  Spain  had  lately  CHAPTER 

devolved,  had  never  forgotten  nor  forgiven  a  threat  of L 

bombardment  by  a  British  admiral,  to  which,  at  a  former  1762. 
period,  when  King  of  Naples,   he  had  been   obliged  to 
yield.      As  King  of  Spain,  he  had  signed  with  France  a  1761. 
treaty  known  as  the  Family  Compact,,  amounting  sub-  Aug- 15' 
stantially  to  an  alliance  offensive  and  defensive.      Pitt 
had  secret  information  of  this  treaty,- and  wished  at  once 
to  declare  war  against  Spain.     But  Pitt  was  an  object 
of  jealousy  and  dislike  to  the  young  king,  desirous  to  se- 
cure for  himself  a  more  active  participation  in  affairs 
than  had  been  enjoyed  by  his  twq  predecessors.      The 
ministry  split  on  this  point,  Pitt  retired  from  office,  and     Oct. 
the  king  hastened  to  <raise  to  the  head  of  the  adminis- 
tration the  Marquis  of  Bute,  his.  late  preceptor.     Yet 
scarcely  had  Pitt  left  the  ministry,  when  hostilities  com^     Dee. 
rnenced  on  the  part  of  Spain- — a  step  which  cost  .that  de- 
clining monarchy  dear.      The  Spanish  colonial  commerce 
was  cut  off  by  British  cruisers,  and  presently  Havana, 
the  key  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  was  taken  by  av  British  1762. 
armament.  .  Au»  12 

The  present  contest  for  territorial  and  commercial  su- 
premacy had  extended  even  to  the  East  Indies,  thus,,  as 
it  were,  encircling  the  globe.  A  twenty  years'  $truggle 
in  Hindostan,  between  the-  French  and  English  East  In-  > 
dia  Companies,  had  ended  in  the  complete  triumph  of  the 
English,  securing  to  them  the  dominion  of  the  Carnatic 
and  Bengal— the  beginning  of  that  career  of  territorial 
aggrandizement  in  India  since  so  remarkably  carried  out. 

With  finances  almost  ruined,  powerless  to  struggle 
any  longer  against  such  a  succession  of  losses,  the  French 
court  was .  obliged  to .  abandon  the  contest,  and  with  it 
all  claim  to  territorial  possessions  on  the  North  American 
continent.  The  island  and  city  of  New  Orleans,  with 


502  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  all  of  Louisiana  west  of  the  Mississippi,  were  ceded  to 

XXVII 

Spain,  in  consideration  of  her  losses  in  the  war.     Loui- 

1762.  siana,  thus. given  to  the  Spaniards,  contained  about  ten 
thousand  inhabitants.  The  transfer  was  very  disagree- 
able to  them,  and  six  years  elapsed  before  the  Spanish 
actually  todk  possession. 

Nov.  3.  By  the  treaty  of  Fontainebleau,  all  the  vast  region 
east  of  the  Mississippi,  the  island  of  New  Orleans  ex- 
cepted,  was  yielded  up  to  the  British.  Spain  also  ceded 
Florida  in  exchange  for  the  Havana.  Thus  was  vested 
in  the  British  crown,  so  far  as  the  consent  of  rival  Eu- 
ropean claimants  could  give  it,  the  sovereignty  of  the 
whole  eastern  half  of  North  America,  from  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  to  Hudson's  Bay  and  the  Polar  Ocean,  including 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  square  miles  upon  which  the 
foot'  of  the  white  man  had  never  yet  trod.  -  By  the 
terms  of  the  treaty,  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi, 
•frpm  its  source  to  its  mouth,  was  to  be  free  to  both  par- 
ties, without  liability  to  stoppage,  search,  or  duty. 

Martinique,  Guadaloupe,  and  St.  Lucie,  islands  of  the 
Caribbee  group,  which  some  politicians  wished  Great 
Britain  to  retain  instead  of  Canada,  were  restored  to 
France ;  also  her  former  rights  in  the  Newfoundland  fish- 
ery. Besides  Canada  and  its  appurtenances,  Great  Brit- 
ain received  also  St.  Vincent's,  Dominica,  and  Tobago, 
islands  , hitherto  called  neutral,  and  the  two  former  still 
possessed  by  the  native  Indian  inhabitants — the  French 
and'English  not  having  hitherto  been  able  to  agree  which 
should  be  allowed  to  take  possession  -  of  them.  These 
1763.  islands  were  erected,  by  proclamation,  into  the  govern- 
Oct.  7.  ment  of  Grenada. 

The  same  proclamation  erected  on  the  continent  the 
three  new  British  provinces  of  East  Florida,  West  Flori- 
da, and  Quebec.  East  Florida  was  bounded  on  the 


CEDED  TERRITORIES.  593 

north  by  the  St.  Mary's,  the  intervening  region  thence  CHAPTER 
to  the  Altamaha  being  annexed  to  Georgia.     The  bound-  '. 

aries  of  West  Florida  were  the  Appalachicola,  the  Qulf  1*763. 
of  Mexico,  the  Mississippi,  Lakes  Pontchartrain  and 
Maurepas ; » and  on  the  north,  the  thirty-first  degree  of  - 
north  latitude,  for  which,  however,  was  substituted,  the 
next  year,  a  line  due  east  from  the  mouth  of  the  Yazoo, 
so  as  to  include  the  French  settlements  about  Natchez. 
The  boundary  assigned  to  the  province  of  Quebec  cor- 
responded with  the  claims  of  New  York  and  Massachu- 
setts, being  a  line  from  the  southern  end  of  Lake  Nepis- 
sirig,  striking  the  St.  Lawrence  at  the  forty-fifth  degree 
of  north  latitude,  and  following,  that  parallel  across  the 
foot  of  Lake  Champlain  to  the  sources  of  the  Connecti- 
cut, and  thence  along  the  highlands  which  >  separate  the 
waters  flowing  into  the  St.  Lawrence  from  those  which 

fall  into  the  sea. 

* .  i 

By  the  same  proclamation,  grants  of  land  were  au- 
thorized to  the  reduced  officers  and  discharged  soldiers 
who  had  served  during  the  war — five  thousand  acres 
each  to  field  officers,  three  thousand  to,  captains,  two 
thousand  to  subaltern  and  staff  officers,  two  hundred  to 
non-commissioned  officers,  and  fifty  to  privates.  To  pre- 
vent the  mischiefs  ^,nd  disputes  which  had  grown  out  of 
the  purchase  of  Indian  lands  by  private  individuals',  all 
such  purchases  within  the  crown  colonies  were  in  future 
to  be  made  only  by  public  treaty,  and  for  the. use  of  the 
crown ;  nor,  except  in  Quebec  and  West  Florida,  were 
any  lands  to  be  taken  up  beyond  the  heads  of  the  rivers 
flowing  into  the  Atlantic.  These  provisions  were  de- 
signed to  restrain  the  backwoodsmen,  and  to  prevent 
Indian  hostilities ;  but  already,  before  the  proclamation 
had  been  issued,  a  new  and  alarming  Indian  war  had 
broken  out. 


504  HISTORY   OF    THE   UNITED    STATES. 

Since  the  capture  of  Forfc  Du  Quesne,  settlers  from 
Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and" Virginia  had  poured  over 

1763.  the  mountains,  very  little  scrupulous  in  their  conduct 
toward  the  Indians,  who  began  to  see  and  to  feel  the 
danger  of  being  soon  driven  Ho  new  migrations.  Per- 
haps, too,  their  prejudices  were  influenced — so  at  least 
the  colonists  ;  thought- — by  the  arts  of  French  fur  traders, 
who  dreaded  the  competition  of  English  rivals.  The  Del- 
awares  •  and  the  Shawanese,  who  had  lately  migrated 
from  Pennsylvania,  and  who  now  occupied  the  banks  of 
the  Muskingum,  Scioto,  and  Miami,  seem  to  have  taken 
the  lead  in  a  widespread  confederacy,  of  which  Pontiac. 
a  Shawanese  chief,  is  Represented  to  have  been  the  mov- 
ing spirit.  It  included  not  only  the  tribes  lately  the 
allies  of  the  French,  but  the  Senecas  also,  the  most  west- 
ern clan  of  the  Six  Nations.  The  other  five  clans,  though 
not  without  much  difficulty,  were  kept  quiet  by  Sir 
William  Johnson^ 

June.  A  simultaneous  attack  was  unexpectedly  made  along 
the  whole  >  frontier  of  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia.  The 
English  traders  scattered  through  the  region  beyond  the 
mountains  were  plundered  and  sladn.  The  posts  between 
the  ^  Ohio  and  Lake  Erie  were  surprised  and  taken — in- 
deed, all  the  po^ts  in  the  western  country,  except  Niag- 
ara, Detroit,  and  Fort  Pitt.  The  two  latter  were  closely. 

July,     blockaded ;  and  the  troops  which  Amherst  hastily  sent 

Sept.  forward  to  relieve  them  did  not  reach  their  destination 
without  some  very  hard  fighting. 

This  sudden  onslaught,  falling  heaviest  on  Pennsyl- 
vania, excited  the  ferocity  of  the  back  settlers,  chiefly 
Presbyterians  of  Scotch  and  Irish  descent,  having  very^ 
little  in  common  with  the  mild  spirit  of  the  Quakers. 
Well  versed  in  the  Old  Testament,  the  same  notion  had 
obtained  among  them  current  in  the  early  times  of  New 


THE   PAXTON  MOB. 
England   and,  Virginia,  that  as  the  Israelites  extertni-  CHAPTER 

'  >     •      XXVII 

nated  the  Canaanites,  so  they  ought  to  exterminate  the 'r_ 

bloody  heathen  Indians,  stigmatized  as  the  children  of  1763. 
Ham.  Under  this  impression,  and  imagining  them1' to 
be  in  correspondence  with  the  hostile  Indians,  some  set- 
tlers of  Paxton  township  attacked  the  remnant  of  a 
friendly  tribe  who  were  living- quietly  under  the  guidance 
of  Moravian  missionaries  at  Conestoga,  on  the  Susque- 
hanna.  All  who  fell  into  their  hands,  men,  women,  and 
children,  were  ruthlessly  murdered.  '  Those  who  escaped  - 
by  being  absent  fled  for  refuge  to  Lancaster,  arid  were 
placed  for  security  in  the  work-house  there.  .The  "Pax- 
ton  Boys,"  as  they  called  themselves,  rushed  into  Lan- 
caster, broke  open  the  doors  of  the  work-house,  and  per- 
petrated a  new  massacre.  It  was  in  vain  that  Franklin,  D6c. 
lately  returned  from  Europe,  denounced  these  murders 
in  an  eloquent  and  indignant  pamphlet.  Such  was  the 
fury  of  the  mob,  including  many  persons  of  respectable 
character  and  standing,  that  they, even  marched  in  arms  1764. 
to  Philadelphia  for  the  destruction  of  some  other  friendly  Jan- 
Indians  who  had  taken  refuge  in  that  city.  Thus  beset, 
these  unhappy  fugitives  attempted  to  escape  to  New 
York,  to  put  themselves  under  the  protection  of  Sir  Will- 
iam Johnson,  the  Indian  agent ;  but  Lieutenant-governor 
Golden  refused  to  allow  them  to  enter  that  province.  / , 
John  Penn,  son  and  presumptive  heir  of  Richard 
Penn,  one  of  the  joint  proprietors,  had  lately  arrived  in 
Pennsylvania  tp  take  Hamilton's  place  as  governor.  Pol- 
itics still  ran  very  high ;  but,  in  this  emergency,  the  aid 
and  advice  of  Franklin,  the  head  of  the  opposition,  and 
speaker  of  the  -. Assembly,  were  eagerly  sought.  Owing 
to  the  royal  veto  on  the  late  act  for  a  volunteer  militia, 
and  the.  repeated  refusals  of  the  Assembly  to  establish  a 
compulsive  one,  there  was  np  .organized  military  force  in 


506  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES- 

CHAPTER  the  province  except  a  few  regular  troops  in  the  barracks 

i_  at  Philadelphia.     By.  Franklin's  aidr  a  strong  body  of 

1764.  volunteers  for  the  defense  of  the  city  was  speedily  en- 
rolled. When  the  insurgents  approached,  Franklin  went 
out  to  meet  thern;  and',  after  a  long  negotiation,  and 
agreeing  to  allow  them  to  appoint  two  delegates  to  lay 
their  grievances  before  the  Assembly,  they  were  per- 
suaded to  disperse  without  further  bloodshed.  So  Bended 
this  most  disgraceful  affair.  There  was  no  power  in  the 
province  adequate  to  punish  these  outrages.  The  Chris- 
tian Indians  presently  re-established  themselves  high  up 
the  eastern  branch  of  the  Susquehanna.  Five  or  six 
years  after,  destined  yet  to  suffer  further  outrages,  they 
migrated  to  the  country  northwest  of  the  Ohio,  and  set- 
tled, with  their  missionaries,  in  three  villages  on  the  Mus- 
kingum. 

General  Gage,  successor  of  Amherst  as  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  British  forces  in  America,  had  called  upon 
the  colonies  for  troops  to  assist  in  subduing  the  Indians. 
So  extensive  was  the  combination,  that  Major  Loftus, 
March,  while,  attempting  to  ascend  the  Mississippi  with  four 
hundred  men  to  take  possession  of  the  Illinois  country, 
was  attacked  near  the  present  site  of  Fort  Adams,  and 
obliged  to  give  over  the  enterprise.  New  England,  re- 
mote from  the  seat  of  danger,  answered  Gage's  call 
scantily  and  reluctantly.  Virginia  furnished  seven  hund- 
red men,  and  Pennsylvania  one:  thousand.  A  pack  of 
blood-hounds  was  sent  out  from  England.  Two  expe- 
ditions were  presently  organized  and  sent  into  the  In- 
dian country,  one  under  Bouquet  by  way  of  Pittsburg, 
tjje  other  under  Bradstreet  along  the  lakes.  The  In- 
dians, finding  themselves  thus  vigorously  attacked^  con- 
sented to  a  treaty,  by  Which  they  agreed  to  give  up  all 
prisoners,  and  to  relinquish  all  claim  to  lands  within 


FRANKLIN'.S   NEW  MISSION  TO  E.NGLAND.        507 
gun  shot  of  anv  fort:  of  which  the  British  were  author-  CHAPTER 

"  XXVII 

ized  to  build  as  many  as  they  chose.  /..Indians  nnrnmit- 

ting  murders  on  white  men  were  to  be  given  up,  to  be  1764. 

tried  by  a  jury  half  Indians  and  half  colonists. 

An  attempt,  meanwhile,  to  enact,  a  new  militia,  law 
in  Pennsylvania  had  brought  on  a  new  quarrel  between 
Governor  Penn  and  the  Assembly.  He  claimed  the  ap- 
pointment of  the  officers,  and  insisted  upon  several  other 
provisions,  to  which  the  Assembly  would  not  consent 
To  this  was  added  a  controversy  as  to  the  true  interpret- 
ation of  the  late  decision  of  the  Board  of  Trade  author- 
izing the  taxation  of  the  proprietary  estates. , 

At  the  annual  election  the  proprietary  party  made  May. 
great  efforts,  and  succeeded  in  defeating  Franklin  in  the 
city  of  Philadelphia.  The  anti-proprietary  party  had  a 
large  majority  notwithstanding  ;  and  the  new  Assembly 
sent  Franklin  back  to  England  as  their  agent  authorized  Oct. 
to  solicit  the  abrogation  of  the  proprietary  authority,  and 
the  establishment  of  a  royal  government.  Upon  this 
point,  however,  the  people  were  by  no  means  unanimous: 
The  Episcopalians  and  the  Quakers  mostly  took  sides 
against  the  proprietaries.  Besides  Franklin,  that  party 
had  another  able  leader  in  Joseph  Galloway,  an  eminent 
lawyer,  their  chief  speaker  in  the  Assembly.  The  Presr 
byterians,  of  Scotch  and  Irish  origin,  were  opposed  to  a 
change,  which -might  result,  they  feared,  in  giving  an 
ascendency  to  the  Church  of  England.  The  patronage 
of  the  proprietaries  attached  many  to  their  interest ;  nor 
was  the  memory  of  William  Penn  altogether  without 
weight  in  their  favor.  In  the  Assembly  they  had  'an 
able  advocate  in  John  Dickinson,  a  lawyer  of  Philadel- 
phia, a  man  of  very  large  property,  destined  soon  to  fig- 
ure on  a  broader  stage.  Chief-justice  Allen  gave  them 
also  able  support.  The  Qermans,  though  numerous, 


5 '08  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  had  as  yet  but  little  weight  in  the  politics  of  the  prov- 
.    '    inoe?  with  which  they  did  not  much  trouble  themselves. 

1764.  -In.  the  course  of  the  late  war,  the  circulating  quantity 
of  colonial  bills  of  credit  had  greatly  increased.  The 
English  merchants,  who  complained  loudly  of \their  losses 
by  depreciation,  -had  just  6btained  an  act  of  Parliament, 
by  which-  the  prohibition  •  formerly  imposed  upon  New 
England  to  make  paper  bills  a  legal  tender  was  now  ex- 
tended tp  all  the  colonies.  This  restraining  act  was  es- 
teemed a  grievance,  at  least  in  Pennsylvania ;  and  it 
was  a  part  of  Franklin's  instructions  to  solicit  its  repeal. 
His  instructions  on  the  subject  of  parliamentary  taxa- 
tiofi  will  be  stated  in  the  next  chapter.  v  > 

In  Virginia  as  well  as  in  Pennsylvania,  a  vigorous 
opposition  to  vested  rights  foreshadowed  what  was  to 
come.  A  short  crop  of  tobacco  having  suddenly  enhanced 
the  price  of  that  staple,  or,  what  is  quite  as  likely,  the 
issue  of  paper  money  in  Virginia,  first  made  that  same 

1755.  year,  .having  depreciated  the  currency,  the  Assembly 
had  passed  a  temporary  act,  .authorizing  the  payment,  of 
all  tojpacco  debts  in  money  at  twopence  per  pound — the 
old  rate,  long  established  by  usage.  Three  years  after, 
under  pretense  of  an  expected  failure  of  the  crop,  this 
tender  act  was  renewed.  Francis  Fauquier,  who  had 

1758.  just  succeeded  Dinwiddie  as  lieutenant  governor,  a  man 
of  more  complying  temper  than  his  predecessor,  readily 
consented  to  it.  The  salaries  of  the  parish  ministers, 
some  sixty-five  in  number*,  were  payable  in  tobacecx 
They  were  likely  to  be  considerable  losers  by  this  tender 
law ;  and,  not  content  with  attacking  it  in  pamphlets, 
they  sent  an  agent  to  England,  and  by  the  aid  of  Sher- 
lock, bishop  of  London,  procured  an  order  in  council 
pronouncing  the  law  void.  Suits  were  presently  brought 
to  recover  the  difference  between  twopence  per  pound  in 


PATRICK  HENRY  IN  VIRGINIA.  599 

the  depreciated  currency  and  the  tobacco  to  which  by  CHAPTER 

xxvir 
law  the  ministers  were  entitled,     In  defending  one  of. |_ 

these  suits,  the  remarka'ble  popular  eloquence  of  Patrick  1763. 
Henry  displayed  itself  for  the  first  time.  Dec 

Henry  was  a  young  lawyer,  unconnected  with  the 
ruling  aristocracy  of  the  province,  and  as  yet  without 
reputation  or  practice.  The  law  was  plainly  against 
him,  and  his  case  seemed  to  be  hopeless.  He  had,  how- 
ever, a  strong  support  in  the  prevailing  prejudice  in  favor 
of  the  tender  law,  and  in  the  dissatisfaction  generally 
felt  at  the  king's  veto  upon  it.  Addressing  the  jury  in 
a  torrent  of  eloquence  as  brilliant  as  it  was  unexpected, 
he  prevailed  upon  them  to  give  him  a  verdict.  The  As- 
sembly voted  money  to  defend  all  .suits  which  the  par- 
sons might  bring ;  and,  notwithstanding  their  clear  legal 
right  in  the  matter,  they  thought  it  best  to  submit  with- 
out further  struggle. 

Chosen  a  member  of  the  Assembly,  Henry  placed  him- 
self at  once  at  the  head  of  the  democratic  section  of  that  1765. 
body  ;  and  by  his  shrewdness  and  eloquence,  in  opposi- 
tion to  Robinson,  the  speaker,  and  other  leading  mem- 
bers, he  succeeded  in  defeating  a  scheme  for  a  fresh 
issue  of  paper  money  on  the  loan-office  plan.  Robin- 
son had  particular  reasons  for  favoring  that  scheme. 
Treasurer,  by  virtue  of  his  office  as  speaker,  of  all  sums 
voted  by  the  Assembly,  he  had  been  accustomed'  to  con- 
firm his  popularity  by  occasional  loans  to  his  friends 
among  the  burgesses,  some  of  whom  were  unable  to  pay. 
The  establishment  of  a  colonial  loan-office  would  Have 
furnished  a  very  convenient  means  for  shifting  off  these 
bad  debts  from  Robinson  to  the  colony.  This  scheme 
was  defeated  by  Henry,  and  Robinson's  death  the*  next 
year  brought  his  defalcation  to  light. 

The  conquest  of  Canada,,  and  the  total  subjection  of 


510  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  Eastern  Indians,  had  given  a  new  impulse  to  the 
_  . '  .  settlements  of  Maine,  among  the  oldest  in  North  Amer- 
1764.  ica,  but  very  seriously  retarded  by  six  successive  Indian 
wars.  'Old  claims  under  ancient  grants  began  now  to 
be  revived,  and  new  grants  to  be  solicited.  In  addition 
to  the  single  ancient  county  of  York,  the  counties  of 
Cumberland  and  Lincoln  were  erected.  New  settlers 
begun  to"  occupy  the  Lower  Kennebec,  and  to  extend 
themselves  along  the  coast  toward  the  Penobscot.  This 
migration  reached  even  to  Nova  Scotia,  where  the  ex- 
iled Acadjens  were  partially  replaced  by  emigrants  from 
New  England*. 

Not  alone  on  its  eastern  border  was  New  England  Ex- 
panding. Numerous  emigrants  from  the  older  townships 
began  to  settle  along  both  sides  of  the  Upper  Connecti- 
cut, under  grants  from  Wentworth,  governor  of  New 
Hampshire,  and  even  to  spread  across  the  Green  Mount- 
ains toward  Lake  Champlain,  a, fertile  region  which  the 
march  of  armies,  during  the  late  warv  had  first  opened 

1763.  to  the  knowledge  of  the  colonists.      To  a  proclamation 
Dec.  28.  Q£  poi^ei^  lieutenant  governor  of  New  York,  claiming 

the  whole  region  between  Lake  Champlain  and  the^ Con- 
necticut as  a  part  of  that  province,  Wentworth  had  re- 

1764.  plied  in  a  counter-proclamation.      A  royal  order  in  coun- 
3;  cil,  issued  on  Colden's  application,  declared  the  Connec- 
ticut "  to  be"  the  boundary  between  New  York  and  New 
Hampshire.     But  a  large  part  of  Vermont  had  already 
been  covered  by  Wentworth's  grants,  the  holders  of  which 
insisted  that  this  order  was  prospective  only,  and  so  did 
not  aftect  the  validity  of  their  titles. 

After  the  suppression  of  the  Indian  outbreak  on  the 
western  frontier,  and  in  spite  of  the  royal  proclamation 
to  the  contrary,  immigrants  from  Pennsylvania,  Mary- 
land, and  Virginia  continued  to  pour  over  the  mountains, 


SOUTH  CAROLINA— GEORGIA— FLORIDA.    §\\ 

and  to  occupy  the  lands  on  the  Monongahela,  claimed  by  CHAPTER 
the  Six  Nations  as  their  property.  \  ' 

Immigration  from  Europe  also  revived,  chiefly,  as  here-  1764. 
tofore,  to  the  middle  and  southern  colonies.  '  Alarmed 
at  the  preponderance >  of  her  slave  population,  and  dread- 
ing the  hostility  of  her  Cherokee  neighbors,  the  effects 
of  •which  she  had  recently  experienced,  South  Carolina 
encouraged,  by  the  payment  of  bounties,  the  immigration 
of  free  white  laborers,  chiefly  Irish  and  German,  by 
whom  the  upper  districts  of  that  province  were  now  rap- 
idly settled.  '  Enriched  by  the  labor  of  the  numerous 
slaves  of  the  rice  plantations,  South  Carolina  was  esteem- 
ed the  wealthiest  of  the  colonies.  :  , 

James  Wright,  lately  appointed  governor  of  Georgia, 
as  successor  to  Ellis,  whose  health  had  failed,  first  de-  1760. 
monstrated  the  agricultural  value  of  the  swamps  and  low 
lands  along  the  rivers  and  coast  of  that  province ;  and ~ 
Georgia,  of  which  the  population  was  rapidly  increasing, 
now  began  to  emerge  from  long  feebleness  and  poverty. 
The  publication  of  the  Georgia  Gazette,  the  first  news- 
paper in  that  colony,  was  commenced  in  1763. 

Settlers  passed  also  into  the  new  province  of  East 
Florida  ;  and,  in  the  next  ten  years,  more  was  done  to- 
ward developing  the  resources  of  that  district  than  during 
the  whole  previous  period  of  Spanish  occupation.  A 
colony  of  Greeks  was  brought  from  the  Mediterranean, 
and  settled  at  the  inlet  -  still  known  as  New  Smyrna. 
The  results,  however,  as  had  been  the  case  with  Geor- 
gia, were  by  no  means  correspondent  to  the  amounts  ex- 
pended. A  body  of  immigrants,  from  the  banks  of  the 
Roanoke,  established  themselves  in  West  Florida,  on  the 
east  side  of  the  Mississippi,  about  Baton  Rouge.  The 
adjoining  colony  of  Louisiana,  which  still  retained  its 
French  administration,  received  also  some  immigrants 


512  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


CHAPTJ.II-  from  Canada,  unwilling  to  live  under  the  new  jurisdic- 

XXVII 

tion  to  which  that  province  had  been  transferred.      All 

17.64.  the  French  posts  and  trading-houses  on  the  great  lakes, 
the  Mississippi,  and  its  tributaries,  except,  the  island  of 
New  Qrldans,  and  the  little  village  of  St.  Genevieve,  on 
the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  in  what  is  now  the  State 
of  Missouri,  had  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  English. 
As  a, place  of  deposit  for  his  merchandise,  La  Glede,  a 
Frenchman,  who  had  a  monopoly  of  the  fur  trade  on  the 
Upper  Mississippi  .and  .the  Missouri,  established,  just  be- 
Jow  the  junction  of  those  rivers,  the  post  of  St.  Louis, 
destined  to  become  the  capital  of  Upper  Louisiana,  and 
ultimately  to  rival  New  Orleans  itself.  The  idea  of  pass- 
ing under  the  Spanish  rule  was  very  disagreeable  to  the 
settlers  of  Louisiana.  They  petitioned,  sent'  agents  to 
France,  even  made  a  show  of  force  ;  but,  in  spite  of  every 
3769.  effort  to  prevent  it,  the  transfer  at  length  took,,  place. 

While  new  settlements  were  every  where  making,  the 
older  districts  gave  plain  evidence  of  rapid  advance  in 
wealth  and  civilization.  This  was  the  golden  age  of 
Virginia,  Maryland,  -and  South  Carolina,  whose  popula- 
tion and  productions  were  now  increasing  at  a  rate  un- 
known before  or  since. 

Norfolk  and  Baltimore  began  to  assume  the  character 
of  commercial  towns  ;  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  sole 
ports  to  a  vast  back  country,  were  growing  fast ;;  Bos- 
ton had  been  stationary  for  twenty-five  years,  and  con- 
tinued -so  for  twenty-five  years  to  corney  chiefly  owing  to 
;4-  the  /act  that  the  trade  and  navigation  for  a  long  time 

almost  engrossed  .by  Boston,  was  now  shared  by  other 
towns  fast  springing  up  along  th.e  sea-coast  of  New  En- 
gland. The  harshness  and  bigotry  -of  former  times  were 
greatly  relaxed.  A  taste  for  literature,  science,  and  so- 
cial  refinement  began  to. be  developed.  The  six  .colonial 


THE   LEGAL   PROFESSION.  5  J,  3 

colleges  received  an  accession  of  students.      By  the  ef-  CHAPTER 

forts  of  Drs.  Shippen  and  Morgan,  both  natives  of  Penn- 

sylvania,  a  medical  school  was  added  to  the  Pennsylva-  1764. 
nia  College,  the  first  institution  of  the  kind  in.  America. 
Even  the  fine  arts  were  not  without  native  votaries.  West 
and  Copley,  fathers  of  American  'art,  both  born  the  same 
year,  had  commenced  as  portrait  painters,  the  one  in  New 
York,  the  other  in  Boston ;  but  they  soon  sought  in  Lon- 
don a  wider  field  and  more  extended  patronage. 

Increasing  wealth  and  population,  and  the  spirit  of 
litigation  every  where  active,  .especially  among  those 
of  Puritan  descent,  had  overcome  the  early  prejudices 
against  lawyers,  and  gradually,  in  all  the  colonies,  the 
practice  of  the  law  had  risen  into  a  distinct  profession. 
The  unprofessional  judges,  by  whom,  for  the  most  part, 
the  colonial  bench  was  still  occupied,  were  no  match  for 
these  educated  practitioners,  who  had  imbibed,  with  the 
learning,  the  pedantry  also,  and  prejudices  of  the  pro- 
fession, and  by  whose  influence  the  simpler  practice 
of  earlier,  times  had  been,  in  a  measure,  superseded  by  •  „ 
the  forms  of  the  English  common  law,  with  all  its  sub- 
tleties, technicalities,  and  u  glorious  uncertainty,"  often 
so  utterly  subversive  of  right.  But  if  the  rising  class 
of  lawyers  regarded  with  undue  favor  technicalities,  in 
nine  cases  out  of  ten  obstacles  to  justice,  they  were  far 
from  insensible  to  those  great  principles  of  popular  rights 
and  universal  equity  embodied  in  the  common  law.  To 
this  profession  many  of  the  ablest  young  men  in  the  col- 
onies had  devoted  themselves.  Though  their  number,  as 
yet,  was  comparatively  small,  their  influence  was  felt  in 
the  colonial  Assemblies.  Besides  Henry,  Otis,  and  Dick- 
inson, other  lawyers  were  already  coming  forward,  des- 
tined to  take  a  leading  part  in  the  impending  struggle 
with  the  mother  country. 
II.— KK 


HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 


CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

GRENVILLE'S  SCHEME  OF  COLONIAL  TAXATION.     PASSAGE 
AND  REPEAL  OF  THE  STAMP  ACT. 

CHAPTER    JL  HAT  war  by  which  the  possession  of  North  Ameri- 

ca  had  been  confirmed  to  the  English  crown  had  not 

1763.  been  carried  on  without  great  efforts  and  sacrifices  on 
the  part  of  the  colonists.      By  disease  or  the  sword,  thir- 
ty thousand  colonial  soldiers  had  fallen  in  the  struggle. 
An   expense  had  been  incurred   of  upward   of  Sixteen 
millions  of  dollars,  of  which  only  about  five  millions  had 
been  reimbursed  by  Parliament.      Massachusetts  alone 
had  kept  from  four  to  seven  thousand  men  in  the  field, 
besides  garrisons  and  recruits  to,  the  regular  regiments. 
These  men,  it  is  true,  served  but  a  few  months  in  the 
year.     At  the  approach  of  .winter  they  were  generally 
disbanded,  and  for  every  campaign  a  new  army  had  to 
be  raised.     They  were  fed  at  British  cost ;  yet  in  the 
course  of  the  war  the  expenses  of  Massachusetts,  exclu- 
sive of  all  parliamentary  reimbursements,  had  amount- 
ed to  two  millions  and  a  half  of  dollars,  all  6f  which  had 
been  raised  without  resort  to  paper  money,  though  not 
without  incurring  a  heavy  debt  in  addition  to  severe  tax- 
ation.    Connecticut,  in  the  same 'period,  expended  not 
less  than  two  million  dollars.      The  outstanding  debt  of 
New  York  was  near  a  million.      If  the  expenditures  of 
the  southern  colonies  had  been  less  profuse,  they  had  far 
exceeded  all  former  experience.      Virginia,  at  the  close 
of  the  war,  had  a  debt  of  eight  hundred  thousand  dollars 


GRENVILLE'S, SCHEME  OF  COLONIAL  TAXATION.  515 

The  New  England  clergy  complained  that  the  morals  CHAPTER 

of  their  parishioners  had  been  corrupted  by  service  in 

the  armies ;  and  more  disinterested  observers  might  be  1763- 
willing  to  admit  that  the  reverential  simplicity  of  rural 
life,  however  tinged  by  superstition,  was  ill  exchanged 
for  any  liberality  of  opinions  or  polish  of  manners  to  be 
acquired  in  a  camp.  Yet  the  intermixture  of  troops 
from  various  colonies  must  have  tended  to  enlarge  the 
circle  of  ideas,  and  partially  to  do  away  with  local  prej- 
udices ;  while  co-operation  in  a  common  object  had  im- 
pressed upon  the  colonial  mind  the  idea  of  union  and  a 
common  interest. 

The  royal  and  proprietary  governors,  to  obtain  the 
necessary  supplies,  had  been  obliged  to  yield  to  per- 
petual encroachments.  The  expenditure  of  the  great 
sums  voted  by  the  Assemblies  had  been  kept,  for  the 
most  part,  in  their  own  hands,  or  those  of  their  specially 
appointed  agents ;  and,  contrary  to  what  usually  hap- 
pens, executive  influence  had  been  weakened  instead  of 
strengthened  by  the  war,  or,  rather,  had  been  transfer- 
red from  the  governors  to  the  colonial  Assemblies. 

In  the  prosecution  of  hostilities,  much  of  the  hardest 
and  most  dangerous  service  had  fallen  to  the  share  of  the 
colonial  levies,  employed  especially  as  scouts  and  light 
troops.  Though  exceedingly  disgusted  by  the  superiority 
always  assumed  by  the  British  regular  officers,  and  al- 
lowed them  by  the  rules  of  the  service,  the  long  continu- 
ance and  splendid  successes  of  the  war  had  filled  the  colo- 
nies with  a  martial  spirit,  and  the  idea  of  martial  force  had 
grown  familiar  as  a  method  at  once  expedient  and  glori- 
ous of  settling  disputed  points  of  authority  and  right. 

With  colonies  thus  taught  their  strength  andv  their 
resources,  full  of  trained  soldiers,  accustomed  to  extra- 
ordinary efforts  and  partial  co-operation,  the  British 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


CHAPTER  ministry  now  entered  'on  a  new  struggle  —  one  of  which 
all  like  former  contests  were  but  as  faint  types  and  fore- 


1763.  runners.  It  was  proposed  to  maintain  in  America  ten 
thousand  regular  troops  as  a  peace  establishment,  nom- 
inally for  the  defense  of  the  colonies ;  perhaps  also,  in 
fact,  as  a  support  to  that  superintending  metropolitan 
authority,  of  which  .the  weakness  had  been  sensibly 
felt  on  various  occasions  during  the  war.  The  outbreak 
of  the  Western  Indians  served,  however*  to  show  that 
SQme  sort  of  a  peace  establishment  was  really  necessary. 
Four  great  wars  within  seventy  years  had  overwhelm- 
ed .Great  Britain  with  heavy  debts  and  excessive  taxa- 
tion. Her  recetit  conquests,  so  far  from  relieving  her 
embarrassments,  had  greatly  increased  that  debt,  which 
.  amounted  now  to  £140,000,000,  near  $700,000,000. 
Even  in  the  midst  of  the  late  struggle,  in  the  success  of 
which  they  had  so  direct  an  interest,  the  military  con- 
tributions of  the  jcolonial  Assemblies  had  been  sometimes 
reluctant  and  capricious,  and  always  irregular  and  un- 
equal. .They  might,  perhaps,  refuse  to  contribute  at  all 
toward  a  standing  army  in  time  of  peace,  of  which  they 
would  naturally  soon  come  to  be  jealous.  .,  It  seemed 
necessary,  therefore,  by  some  exertion  of  metropolitan 
authority,  to  extract  from  the  colonies,  for  this  purpose, 
a  regular  and  certain  revenue. 

At  the  very  commencement  of  the  late  war,  the  Board 
of  Trade  had  proposed  a  scheme  of  parliamentary  taxa- 
tion for  the  colonies.  In  the  course  of  the  war  Pitt  had 
intimated  to  more  than  one  oolonial  governor,  that,  when 
it  was  over,  the  authority  of  Parliament  would  be  exert- 
ed to  draw  from  America  the  meanjs  for  its. own  defense. 
Peace  was  no  sooner  established  than  Pitt's  successors 
in  the  ministry  hastened  to  carry  out  the  scheme  thus 
foreshadowed. 


GRENVILLE'S    SCHEME    OF    COLONIAL   TAXATION.  5^7 

That  Parliament  possessed  a  certain  authority  over  CHAPTER 
,,         ,  '    XXVIIL 

the  colonies,  in  some  respects  superemment,  was  admit-       ;  . 

ted  by  all ;  but  the  exact  limits  of  that  authority  had  1763. 
never  been  very  accurately  settled,  As  against  the 
royal  prerogative,  the  colonists  had  ^)een  'eager  to  claim 
the  benefits  of  English 'law,'  not  the  common  law  only,  , 
but  all  statutes,  such  as  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  of  a  ?e- 
medial  and  popular  character.  There  were  other  statutes, 
however,  the  Mutiny  Act  for  instance,  from  which  they 
sought  to  escape  on  the  ground  of  non-extension  to  Amer- 
ica. Against  the  interference  of  Parliament  in  matters 
of  trade,  most  of  the  colonies,  especially  those  of  New 
England,  had  carried  on  a  pertinacious  struggle.  In 
spite,  however,  of  opposition,  that  interference  had  been 
extended  from  the  trade  of  the  colonies  with  foreign  na- 
tions and  each  other  to  many  other  matters  but  remote- 
ly connected  with  it.  The  English  post-office  system 
introduced  into  America,  the  transportation  of  mails  and 
the  rates  of  postage  had  been  regulated.  Parliament 
had  interfered  with  the  colonial  currency,  establishing 
the  standard  in  coin,  and  restricting  the  -issue  of  paper 
notes.  Joint-stock  companies,  with  more  than  a  certain 
number  of  partners,  had  been  prohibited.  The  collec- 
tion of  debts  had  been  regulated.  A  uniform  law  of  nat- 
uralization had  been  established.  Parliament  had  pro- 
hibited or  restricted  certain  trades  and  manufactures, 
and  had  even  assumed  to  legislate  respecting  the  admin- 
istration of  oaths.  All  or  most  of  these  exertions  of  au- 
thority had  been  protested  against  at  the  time ;  but  the 
colonists  had  yielded  at  last,  and  the  power  of  regula- 
ting colonial  trade  for  the  exclusive  benefit  of  the  mother 
country,  exercised  for  two  or  three  generations,  and  sus- 
tained by  a  system  of  custom-house  officers  and  Ad- 
miralty .courts,  had  acquired,  in  spite  of  unpopularity 


•5.18  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  and  a  systematic  evasion  still  extensively  practiced,  the 

l_  character  and  attributes  of  a  legal  vested  right. 

17  $3.  The  supereminent  power  of  all,  that  of  levying  taxes 
for  revenue,  Parliament  had  never  exercised.  The  rates 
of  postage,  of  which, the  payment  was  voluntary,  might 
be  considered  not  so  much  a  tax  as 'an  equivalent  for 
services  rendered.  The  intercolonial  duties  on  "  enu- 
merated articles,"  producing  little  more  than  sufficient 
to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  custom-houses,  had  for  their 
professed  object,  not  revenue,  but  the  regulation  of  trade. 
The  trifling  surplus  paid  into  the  British  treasury  was 
but  a  mere  incident  to  that  regulation.  Yet  the  co- 
lonial custom-houses,  though  hitherto  maintained  with 
no  intention  of  collecting  taxes,  might  easily  be  adapted 
to  that  purpose ;  and  as  the  colonists  were  already  ac- 
customed to  the  payment  of  parliamentary  duties,  they 
might  not  readily  distinguish  between  duties  for  regula- 
tion and  duties  for  revenue. 

A  part  of  the  new  scheme,  as  suggested  to  Parliament 
by  Lord  Grenville,  Bute's  chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
appears  to  have  proceeded  on 'this  idea.  In  spite  of 
recent  vigilance  in  the  enforcement  of  the  acts  of  trade, 
the  Molasses  Act  was  still  extensively  evaded.  By  re- 
djicing  the  duties  exacted  under  that  act,  now  about 
to  expire,  Grenville  proposed  to  diminish  the  temptation 
to  smuggle  ;  -and,  while  seeming  'thus  to  confer  a  boon 
on  the  colonies,  by  opening  to  them,  under  moderated 
duties,  the  trade  with  the  foreign  sugar  islands,  by  the 
same  process,  to  convert  the  Molasses  Act  from  a  mere 
regulation  of  trade  into  a  source  of  revenue,  to  be  en- 
hanced by  duties  on  other  foreign  products.  Had  the 
proposition  stopped  here,  there  might  have  .been  some 
chance  of  gradually  forcing  on  the  colonies  the  practice 
of  parliamentary  taxation.  But  the  amount  which 


GRENVILLK'S    SCHEME-,  OF    C  OLONI  AL   T  AX  ATION.  £  i  9 
could  thus  be  raised  would  not  suffice  for  the  object  in  CHAPTER 

x  XXVIII 

view,  and  Grenville  proposed,  in  addition,  a  stamp  tax          . 


—  an  impost  in  several  respects  much  like  those  of  the 
custom-house,  and  very-  like  them  in  facility  of  collec- 
tion. All  bills,  bonds,  notes,  leases,  policies  of  insur- 
ance, papers  used  in  legal  proceedings,  and  a  great  many 
other  documents,  in  order  to  be  held  valid  in  courts  of  law, 
were  to  be  written  on  stamped  paper,  sold  by  public  of- 
ficers appointed  for  that  purpose  at  prices  which  levied  a 
stated  tax  on  every  such  document.  Stamp  duties,  said 
to  be  an  invention  of  the  Dutch,  though  long  familiar 
in  England,  were  as  yet  almost  unknown  in  America, 
where  only  one  or  two  colonies  had  made  some  slight  trial 
of  them. 

Shortly  after  the  final  treaty  of  peace,  Grenville  laid 
this  plan  before  Parliament,  not  for  immediate  action, 
but  by  way  of  information  and  notice.  -The  colonial 
agents,  or  some  of  them,  wrote  too  America  for  '  instruc- 
tions ;  but  the  public  mind  was  engrossed  by  the  sud- 
den renewal  of  the  war  on  the  western  frontier,  and 
Grenville's  proposition  hardly  attracted  so  much  atten- 
tion as  might  have  been  expected.  The  Assembly  of 
Pennsylvania  was  content  with  simply  stating  a  will- 
ingness "  to  aid  the  crown  according  to  their  ability, 
whenever  required  in  the  usual  constitutional  manner." 
They  even  proposed  to  forward  a  plan  by  which  alhthe 
colonies  might  be  made  to  contribute  fairly  and  equita- 
bly to  the  Dublic  defense  ;  but  that  idea  they  soon  aban- 
doned. .  ;  - 

Bollan,  so  long  the  agent  of  Massachusetts,  had  been 
lately  dismissed,  and  the  place  given  to  Jasper  Man- 
chiit,  whose   letters,    containing  an   account   of  Gren- 
ville's proposals,  were  laid  before  the  General  Court  at  1764. 
an  adjourned  session.      Th«re  seems  at  this  moment  to     Jan 


520  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  have  l>een  a  lull  in  the  politics  of  that  province.      The 

_I excitement  growing  out  of  the  question  of  writs  of  as- 

1764.  sistance  had  subsided.  Hutchinson,  who  still  sat  in  the 
council  in  spite  of  Otis's  attempt  to  exclude  him,  had  a 
principal  hand  in  drawing  up  the  instructions  to  the 
agent-  They  suggested,  indeed,  the  right  of  the  colo- 
nists to  tax  themselves,  but  in  a  very  moderate  tone. 
It  was  even  voted  to  send  Hutchinson  as  a  special  agent 
to  England ;  but  this  was  prevented  by  Governor  Ber- 
nard, who  thought  it  irregular  for  the  lieutenant  governor 
to  be  absent  from  the  province. 

March.  At  the  <  next  session  of  Parliament,  Grenville,  now 
prime  minister,  brought  forward  his  scheme  of  taxation 
in  a  more  formal  shape.  After  a  debate  which  excited 
very  little  interest  or  attention,  the  House  of  Commons 
resolved,  without  a  division,  "  that  Parliament  had  a 
right  to  tax  the  colonies,"  and  they  recommended  such 
a  stamp  act  .as  the  minister  had  prpposed. 

Further  action  as  to  this  stamp  tax  was,  however,  de- 
layed, tagive  the  colonists  an  opportunity  for  suggesting, 
if  they  chose,  some  more  satisfactory  means  for  raising 
the  half  million  of  dollars  which  the  minister  required. 
Aprils.  The  other  part  of  the  ministerial  scheme  was  at  once 
carried  out  by  a  law  known  as  the  "  Sugar  Act,"  reduc- 
ing, by  one  half  the'  duties  imposed  by  the  old  Molasses 
Act  oh  foreign  sugar  and  molasses  imported  into  the  col- 
onies ;  levying  duties  on  coffee,  pimento,  French  and 
East  India  goods,  and  wines  from  Madeira  and  the 
Azores,  which  hitherto  had  been  free ;  and  adding  iron  and 
lumber  to  the  list  of  "  enumerated  articles^'  which  could 
not  be  exported  except  to  England.  Openly  avowing 
in  its  preamble  the  purpose  of  "  raising  a  revenue  for 
defraying  the  expenses  of  defending,  protecting,  and  se- 
curing his  majesty's  dominions  in  America,"  this  act 


GRENVILLE'S   SCHEME   OF  .COLONIAL  TAX  ATI  ON.  5  2  1 

gave    increased  jurisdiction  to  the   colonial  Admiralty  CHAPTER 
courts,  and  provided  new  and  more  efficient  means  for          ' 
enforcing  the  collection  of  the  revenue.  1764. 

^Partial  accounts  of  these  proceedings  having  reached  May. 
Massachusetts  previous  to  the  annual  election,  the  town 
of  Boston  took  occasion  to  instruct  its  newly-chosen  rep* 
resentatives  to  use  all  their  •  efforts  against  the  pending 
plan  of  parliamentary  taxation,  and  for  the  repeal  of  any 
such  acts,  already  passed.  These  instructions,- drafted 
by  Samuel  Adams,  contained  the  first  decided  protest 
against  Grenville's-  scheme.  Among  other  things,  they 
suggested  the  expediency  of  a  combination  of  all  the  col- 
onies for  the  defense  of  their  common  interests. 

At  the  session  which  speedily  followed,  the  House  of  June. 
Representatives  resolved,  "  That  the  imposition  of  duties 
and  taxes  by  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain,  upon-"  a 
people  not  represented  in  the  House  of  Commons,  is  ab- 
solutely irreconcilable  with  their  fights."  A  pamphlet, 
lately  published  by  Otis,  «  The  Rights  of  the  British 
Colonies  asserted,"  was  read  and  approved.  A  copy  was 
transmitted  to  the  agent  in  England,  and  along  with  it 
an  energetic  letter.  "  The  silence  of  the  province,"  said 
this  letter,  alluding  to  a  suggestion  of  the  agent  that  he 
had  taken  silence  for  consent,  "  should  have  been  imputed 
to  any  cause — even  to  despair — rather  than  \>e  construed 
into  a  tacit  cession  of  their  rights,  or  the  acknowledgment 
of  a  right  in  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain  to  impose 
duties  and  taxes  on  a  people  who  are  not  represented,  in 
the  House  of  Commons."  "If  we  are  not  represented, 
we  are  slaves!"  ;  . 

Following  up  the  suggestions  of  the  Boston  instruc- 
tions, a  committee  was  appointed  to  correspond,  during 
the  recess,  with  the  Assemblies  of  the  other  colonies. 
These  energetic  measures  f  warmly  supported  by  Thatch- 


522  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  er  and  Otis,  were  adopted  just  at  the  close  of  the  ses- 
xx  vm.  J 
sion,   and  in  Hutchinson's  absepce.      The   concurrence 

1764.  of  the  council  was  not  asked.  Not  that  any  open'  advo- 
cates for  parliamentary  taxation  were  to  be  found  in  that 
body  ;  even  Governor  Bernard  avowed  his  opposition,  art 
least,  to  the  proposed  Stamp  Act;  but  the  council,  for 
years  past  very  much  under  Hutchinson's  influence,  was 
composed  of  wealthy  and  moderate  men,  who  might  not 
choose  to  venture,  on  so  vigorous  a  remonstrance. 

Otis's  pamphlet  on  colonial  rights  conceded  to  Parlia- 
ment a  superintending  power  to  enact  laws  and  regula- 
tions for 'the  public  good— a  power  limited,  however,  by 
the  "  natural  rights  of  man,"  and  "  the  constitutional 
rights  of  British  subjects,"  claimed  as  the  birthright  of 
all  born 'in  the  colonies.  It  was  maintained  as  one  of 
these  rights  that  taxes  could, not  be  levied  on  the  peo- 
ple "but  by  their  consent  in  person  or  by  deputation." 
The  distinction  was  scouted  between  external  and  intern- 
al taxes,  meaning,  in  the  one  case,  taxes  on  trade,  and 
in  the  other  taxes  on  land  and  personal  property.  If 
trajle  might  be  taxed  without  the  consent  of  the  colo- 
nists, so  might  land  and  houses.  Taxes  of  either  kind 
were  pronounced  "  absolutely  irreconcilable  with  the 
rights  of  the  colonists  as  British  subjects  and  as  men." 
Yet  nothing  like  forcible  resistance  was  hinted  at. 
M  There  would  be  an  endv  to  all  governments  if  one,  or 
a  number  of  subjects  or  subordinate  provinces,  should 
take  upon  them  so  far  to  judge  of  the  justice  of  an  act 
of  .Parliament  as  to  refuse  obedience  to  it."  "  Forcibly 
resisting  the  Parliament  and  the-  king's'  laws  is  high 
treason."  «  Therefore  'let  the  Parliament  lay  what 
burdens  they  please  on  us,  we  must,  it  is  our  duty  to 
submit,  and  patiently  bear  them  till  they  will  be  pleased 
to  relieve  us."  Such,  at  this  moment,  were  the  public 


GRENVILLE'S  SCHEME  OF  COLONIAL  TAX ATION.    523 

professions,  and  most  probably  the  private  opinions  of  CHAPTER 
the  strongest  advocates  of  the  rights  of  the  colonists — -at 
kast  of  those  who  had  been  bred,  like  .Otis,  to  the  pro-  1764. 
fession  of  .the  law.     But  this  doctrine  of  patient  submis- 
sion to  injustice  was  not  of  a  sort  to  go.  down  in  America. 

Thatcher  also  T published  a  tract  against  the  scheme 
of  parliamentary 'taxation,  and  similar  tracts  were  put 
forth  in  Rhode  Island  «  by  authority  f  in  Maryland  by 
Dulany,  secretary  of1  the  province ;  and  in  Virginia  by 
Bland,  a  leading  member  of  the  House  of  Burgesses. 

The  opposition  of  Massachusetts  tor  the  new  "  Sugar 
Act"  was  presently  re-echoed  from  Pennsylvania,  and 
strong  instructions  to  oppose  the  whole  scheme  of  -taxa- 
tion were6  given  to  Franklin,  about  to  depart  for  En- 
gland as  the  agent  for  the  colony,  to  solicit  the  overthrow 
of  the  proprietary  government. 

At  the  adjournecl  session, of  the  Massachusetts  Gen-  Nov. 
eral  Court,  the  powerful  influence  of  Hutchinson  again 
became  obvious.  The  House  adopted  a  strong  petition 
to  Parliament,  drawn  by  a  committee  of  which  Otis  was 
chairman.  The  council  refused  to  concur.  A  joint  com- 
mittee then  appointed  Reported  a  petition  to  the  House 
of  Commons,  drafted  by  Hutchinson,  and  not  at  all  to 
the  taste  of  the  more  ardent  patriots.  Yet,  after  some 
alterations,  it  was  adopted  by  the  court.  A  letter  to 
the  agent,  m  a  somewhat  more  decided  tone,  spoke  of 
self-taxation  as  the  right  of  the  colony,  not  as  a .  mere 
usage  and  favorr  in  which  light  the  petition  seemed  to 
regard  it. 

Connecticut,  following  in  the  steps  of  Massachusetts, 
adopted  the    same   moderate  ;  tone.      The  Assembly  of 
New  York  agreed  to  a  petition , jnuch  more  strongly  ex-     Dec 
pressed — so   strongly    that   no   member   of  Parliament 
could  be  found  to  present  it*     This  petition,  adopted  and 


524  HTSTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  re-echoed  by  Rhode  Island,  made  the  Massachusetts  lead- 

XXVIII  > 

'_  ers  still  more  dissatisfied  with  the  tameness  of  theirs. 

1764.  In  the  .Virginia  House  of  Burgesses,  Peyton  -Randolph, 
Dec-     the  attorney  general,  conspicuous  formerly  in  the  con- 
troversy with  Dinwioldie,  Richard  Henry  Lee,"  son  of  a 
former  president  of  the  council,  George  Wythe,'  and  Ed- 
mund Pendleton,  all -distinguished  lawyers  and  leaders 
of  the  colonial  aristocracy,'  were  appointed  u  committee 
to, 'draw  up  a  petition  to  the  king,  a  memorial  to  the 
House  of  Lords,  and  a  remonstrance  to  the  Commons. 
These  papers  claimed  for  the  colony  the  privilege  of  self- 
taxation  ;  but  their  tone  was  very  moderate.     Instead 
of  relying  on  the  matter  of  right,  they  dwelt  at  length  on 
the  embarrassments  and  poverty  of  the  province,  encum- 
bered by  the  late  war  with  a  heavy  debt. 

1765.  These  faint  protestations  produced  no  effect  on  the 
made-up  minds  of  the  British  ministers.     In  spite  of 
remonstrances  addressed  to  Grenville  by  Franklin,  Jack- 
son, the  newly-appointed  agent  of  Massachusetts,  Inger- 
soU,  the  agent  for  Connecticut,  and  other  gentlemen  in- 
terested in  the  colonies,  a  bill  for  collecting  a  stamp  tax 
in  .America  was   presently  brought  in.  ^  The   London 
merchants  concerned  in  the  American  trade  petitioned 
against  it ;  %but  a  convenient  rule  not  to  receive  petitions 
against  money  bills  excluded  t,his  as  well  as  those  from 
the  colonial  Assemblies.     In  reply  to  Colonel  Barre,  who 
had  served  in  < America,  and  who  made  a  speech  against 
the  bill,  Townshend,  pne  of  the  ministers,  spoke  of  tjie 
cdlonists -as  "  children  planted  by  OUP  care,  nourished  by 
our  indulgence,  and  protected  by  our  arms."     Barre's 
indignant  retort  produced  a  great  sensation  in  the  House. 
"  They  planted  by  your  care?     No  ;'  your  oppressions 
planted  them  in  America."      "  They  nourished  by  your 
indulgence  ?      They  grew  up  by  your  neglect  of  them/' 


PASSAGE  AND  REPEAL  OF  THE  STAMP.  ACT.   525 

"  They  protected  by  your  arms  ?     Those  sons  of  liberty  CHAPTER 

have  nobly  taken  up  arms  in  your  defense.      I  claim  to 

know  more,  of  America  than  most  of  you,  having-  been  1765. 
conversant  in  that  country.  The  people,  I  believe,  are 
as  truly  loyal -subjects  as  the.  king  has,  but  a  people 
jealous  of  their  liberties,  and  who  will  vindicate  them 
should  they  ever  be  violated.  But  the  subject  is  too 
delicate  ;' I  will  say  no  more."  Barre  placed  his  oppo- 
sition on  the  ground  of  expediency ;  General  Gonway 
and  Alderman  Beckford,  one  of  the  London  members, 
denounced  the  bill  as  unjust.  It  passed,  however,  in  the  March  22. 
Commons  five  to  one ;  in  the  Lords  there  was  no  divis- 
ion nor  the  slightest  opposition. 

A  clause  inserted  into  the  annual  Mutiny  Act  carried 
out  another  part  of  the  ministerial  scheme,  by  authoriz- 
ing as  many  troops  to  be  sent  to  America  as  the  minis- 
ters saw  fit.  For  these  troops,  by  a  special  enactment ^ 
known  as  "  the  Quartering  Act,"  the  colonies  in  which 
they  might  be  stationed  were  required  to  find  quarters, 
fire- wood,  bedding,  drink y  soap',  and  candles. 

News  of  the  passage  of  these  acts  reached  Virginia  '  May. 
while  the  Assembly  was  sitting.  The  aristocratic  lead- 
ers in  that  body  hesitated.  The  session  approached  it& 
close,  and  not  one  word  seemed  likely  to  be  said.  But  the 
rights  of  the  colonies  did  not  fail,  of  an  advocate.  Patrick 
Henry  had  already  attracted  the  attention  of  the  flouse 
by  his  successful  opposition  to  Robinson's  proposed  paper: 
money  loan,  as  mentioned  in  the  previous  chapter.  Find- 
ing the  older  and  more  weighty  members  unlikely  to 
move,  he  assumed  the  responsibility  of  introducing  a 
series  of  resolutions  which  claimed  for 'the  inhabitants 
of  Virginia  all  the  rights  of  born  British  subjects  ;  denied 
any  authority  any  where,  except  in  the  provincial  As- 
sembly, to  impose  taxes  upon  them  ;  and  denounced  the 


526  .HISTORY  <}F   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  attempt  to  vest  that  authority  elsewhere  as  inconsistent 

XXVIII 

1_  with  the  ancient  Constitution,  and  subversive  of  British 

1765.  .as  well  as  pf  American  liberty.  Upon  the  introduction 
of  these  resolutions  a  hot  debate  ensued.  "Caesar  had 
his  Brutus,"  said  Henry,  "  Charles  I.  his  Cromwell,  and 
George  III. — "  "  Treason !  treason !"  shouted  the  speak- 
er, and  the  cry  was  re-echoed  from  the  House.  "  George 
III.,"  said  Henry,  firmly,  "  may  profit  by  tjieir  exam- 
ple. If  that  be  treason,  make  the  most  of  it !"  In 
spite  of  the  opposition  of  all  the  old,  leaders,,  the  resolu- 
tions passed,  the  fifth  and  most  emphatic  by  a  majority 
of  only  one  vote.  The  next  day,  in  Henry's  absence, 
the  resolutions  were  reconsidered,  softened,  and  the  fifth 
struck  out.  But  a  manuscript  copy  had  already  been 
sent  to  Philadelphia ;  and  circulating  through  the  colonies 
in  their  original  form,  these  resolutions  gave  every  where 
a  strong  impulse  to. the  popular  feeling. 

Before  these  Virginia  resolutions  jeached  Massachu- 
setts, the  General  Court  had  met  at  its  annual  session. 
Considering  "  the  many  difficulties  to  which  the  colonies 
are  and'  must  be  reduced  by  the,  operation  of  some  late 
acts  of  Parliament,"  the  House  of  Representatives  ap- 
•pointed  a  committee  of  nine  to  consider  what  steps  the 
emergency  demanded.  That  committee  recommended  a 
convention  or  congress,  to  be  composed  of  "committees 
from  the  Houses  of  Representatives  or  Burgesses  in  the 
several  colonies,"  to  meet  at  New  York  on  the  first  Tues- 
day of  October  following,  there  to  consult  "  on  the  dif- 
ficulties in  which  the  colonies  were  and  must  be  placed  by 
the  late  acts  of  Parliament  levying  duties  and  taxes  upon 
them  ;"  and,  further,  "  to  consider  of  a  general  and  hum- 
ble address  to  his  majesty  and  the  Parliament  to  implore 
June  6.  relief."  Even  the  partisans  of  Bernard  judged  it  best  to 
concur  in  the  adoption  of  this  report;  and  they  congratu- 


PASSAGE  AND  REPEAL  OF  THE  STAMP  ACT.   £27 

lated  themselves  that  Ruggles  and  Partridge,  two  of  the  CHAPTER 
committee-  appointed  to  represent  Massachusetts  att  the         , 
congress,  were  •"  prudent  and  discreet  men,  fast  friends  176$. 
of  government."      The  third  was  James  Otis.     A_  circu- 
lar letter,  addressed  to  all  the  other  colonies,  reeomrnerid- 
ed  similar  appointments.    Governor  Fitch  and  a  majority 
of  the  Connecticut  assistants  seemed  inclined  to  submit 
to  the  Stamp  Act,  but  TmmbulL  and  others  loudly  pro- 
tested against  it,  and  the  popular  feeling  was  all  on  their 
side. 

The  stamps  were-  to  be  prepared  in  Great  Britain, 
and  sent  to  officers  in  the  colonies  appointed  to  sell 
them.  Anxidus  to  make  this  unpopular  measure  as  pal- 
atable'as  possible,  the  colonial  agents  were  consulted  as 
to  the  persons  fit  to  be  appointed.  So  vlittje.  did  even 
Franklin  foresee  the  result,  that  he  procured  that  office 
at  Philadelphia  for  one  of  his  particular  friends  and  sup-, 
porters.  'He  also  advised  Ingersoll,  the  Connecticut /agent, 
to  accept,  that  appointment  for  his  own  colony. 

Before  the  stamps  reached  America,  symptoms  of  a 
violent  ferment  appeared.  A  great  elrn  in  JBoston,  at 
the  corner  of  the  present  Washington  and  Essex  Streets, 
under  which  the  opponents  of  the  Stamp  Act  were  ac- 
customed to  assemble,  soon  became  famous  as  "  liberty 
tree!"  Those  persons  supposed  to  favor  the  .ministry 
were  hung  in  effigy  on  the  branches  of  this  elm.  A  mob 
attacked  the  house  of  Oliver,  secretary  of  the  colony,  Aug.  15. 
who  had  been  appointed  stamp  distributer  for  Massachu- 
setts, broke  his  windows,  destroyed  his  furniture, -pulled 
down  a  small  building  supposed  to  be  intended  for  a 
stamp  office,  and  frightened  Oliver  into  a  resignation. 
Jonathan  Mayhew,  .the  able  minister  of  the  West  Church 
in  Boston — distinguished  by  some  recent  controversial 
tracts,  in  which  he  had  severely  criticised  the  conduct 


528  HISTORY    OF   THE    JJNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  main- 
*  ...  taining  Episcopal1  missionaries  in  New  England — preach - 
1765.  eij*  a  warm  sermon  against  the  Stamp  Act,  taking  for 
his  text,  « I  would  they  were  even  cut  off*  which  trouble 
Aug.  26  you.!"  The  Monday  evening  after  this  sermon  the 
riots  were  renewed.  The.  mob  attacked  the  house  of 
Story,  registrar  of  the  Admiralty,  and  destroyed  not  only 
the  public  files  and- records,  but  his  private  papers  also. 
Next  they  entered  and  plundered  the  house  of  the  con- 
troller of  thq  customs  ;  /and,  maddened  with  liquor  and 
excitement,  proceeded  to  the  mansion  of  Hutchinson  in 
North  Square.  .  The  lieutenant  governor  and  his  family 
fled  for  their  lives.  The  house  was  completely  gutted, 
and  the  contents  burned  in  bonfires  kindled  in  the  square. 
Along  with  Hutchin son's  furniture  and  private  papers  per- 
ished many  invaluable  manuscripts  relating  to  the  history 
of  the  province,  which  Hutchinson  had  been,  thirty  years 
in  collecting,  and  which  it  was  impossible  to  replace. 

As  commonly  happens  on  such  occasions,  the  imme- 
diate actors  in  these  scenes  were  persons  of  no  note,  the 
dregs  of  the  population.  -May hew,  sent  the  next  day  a 
special  apology  and  disclaimer  to  Hutchinson.  The  in- 
habitants of  Boston,  at  a  town  meeting,  unanimously 
expressed  their  "  abhorrence"  of  these  proceedings;  and 
a  "civic  guard"  was  organized  to  prevent  their  repe- 
titipn-.  Yet  the  rioters,  though  well  known,  went  un- 
punished-^— a  sure  sign  of  the  secret  concurrence  and 
good  will  of  the  mass  of  the  community.  It  is  only  in 
reliance  .on  such  encouragement  that  mobs  ever  venture 
to  .commit  deeds  of  violence.  Those  now  committed 
were  .revolutionary  acts,  designed  to  intimidate,  melan- 
choly forerunners  of  civilj  war. 

Throughout  the  northern  colonies,  associations  OH  the 
basis  of  forcible  resistance  to  the  Stamp  Act,  under  the 


PASSAGE  AND   REPEAL   OF  THE   STAMP  ACT.      529 
name   of  "  Sons   of  Liberty" — a    title    borrowed   from  CHAPTER 

XXVIII 

Barre's  famous  speech — sprung  suddenly  into  existence. 

Persons  of  influence  and  consideration,  though  they  might  1765. 
favor  the  object,  kept  aloof,  however,  from  so  dangerous 
a  combination,  which  consisted  of  the  young,  the  ardent, 
those  who  loved  excitement,  and  had  nothing  to  lose. 
The  history  of  these  " Sons  of  Liberty"  is  very  obscure; 
but  they  seem  to  have  spread  rapidly  from 'Connecticut 
and  New  York  into  Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania,  and 
New  Jersey,  and  to  have  taken  up  as  their  special  busi- 
ness the  intimidation  of  the  stamp  officers.  In  all  the 
colonies  those  officers  were  persuaded  or  compelled  to  re- 
sign ;  and  such  stamps  as  arrived  either  remained  un- 
packed, or  else  were  seized  and  burned.  The  Assembly 
of  Pennsylvania  unanimously  adopted  a  series  of  reso-  Sept.  21 
lutions  denouncing  the  Stamp  Act  as  "unconstitutional, 
and  subversive  of  their  dearest  rights."  Public  meet- 
ings to  protest  against  it  were  held  throughout  the  col- 
onies. The  holding  of  such  meetings  was  quite  a  new 
incident,  and  formed  a  new  era  in,  colonial  history. 

In  the  midst  of  this  universal  excitement,  at  the  day  Oct.  7. 
appointed  by  Massachusetts,  committees  from  nine  colo- 
nies met  in  New  York.  The  Assemblies  of  Virginia  and 
North  Carolina  not  having  been  in  session  since  the  issue 
of  the  Massachusetts  circular,  no  opportunity  had  occurred 
of  appointing  committees.  New  York,  was  in  the  same 
predicament;  but  a  committee  of  correspondence,  ap- 
pointed at  a  previous  session,  saw  fit  to  attend.  In 
Georgia  Governor  Wright  refused  to  call  the  Assembly 
together ;  but  the  speaker  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, after  consulting  with  a  majority  of  the  members, 
sent  a  letter  to  New  York  approving  the  proposed  con- 
gress, and  promising  to  support  its  measures.  The  New 
Hampshire  House  of  Representatives  gave  their  sanction 
II.— L  L 


530  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  to  the  congress,  and  offered  to  join  in  any  suitable  me- 

XXVIII 

^ _morial;   but,  "owing  to  the  particular  state  of  their  af- 

1765.  fairs,"  by  which  may  be  understood  the  predominant  in- 
fluence of  Governor  Wentworth,  they  sent  no  delegates. 
Dr,  Fran,klin,  about  the  close  of  his  first  agency  in  En- 
gland, had  obtained  the  post  of  governor  of  New  Jer- 
sey, vacated  by  Hardy,  for  his  natural  and  only  son, 
William  Franklin.  The  new  governor,  who  inherited 
all  the  prudence,  with  none  of  the  patriotic  ardor  of  his 
father,  had  prevailed  upon  the  Assembly  of  that  province 
to  return  a  negative  answer  to  the  Massachusetts  letter  ; 
/but  this  proved  so  unsatisfactory  to  the  people,  that  the 
speaker  called  the  members  together  by  circular,  and  dele- 
gates were  appointed. 

The  Congress  was  organized  by  the  appointment  of 
Ruggles  as  president.  There  were  present,  among  other 
members,  besides  Otis,  of  Massachusetts,  William  John- 
son,, of  Connecticut ;  Philip  Livingston,  of  N6w  York  ; 
John  Dickinson,  of  Pennsylvania  ;  Thomas  M'Kean,  of 
Delaware,  and  Christopher  Gadsden  and  John  Rutledge, 
of  South  Carolina,  all  subsequently  distinguished  in  the 
history  of  the  Revolution.  A  rule  was  adopted,  giving  to 
each  colony  represented  one  vote. 

In  the  course  of  a 'three  weeks'  session,  a  Declara- 
tion of  the  Rights  and  Grievances  of  the  Colonies  was 
agreed  to.  All  the  privileges  of  Englishmen  were  claim- 
ed -by  this  declaration  as  the  birth-righ^:  of  the  colo- 
nists-^— among  the  rest,  the  right  of  being  taxed  only  by 
their  own  consent.  Since  distance  and  local  circum- 
stances made  a  representation  in  the  British  Parliament- 
impossible,  these  representatives,  it  was  maintained, 
could  be  no  other  than  the  several  colonial  Legislatures. 
Thus  was  given.a  flat  negative  to  a  scheme  lately  broach- 
ed in  England  by  Pownall  and  others,  for  allowing  to  the 


. 


PASSAGE    AND    REPEAL    OF    THE    STAMP    ACT.      53} 
colonies  a  representation  in  Parliament,  a  project  to  which  CHAPTER 

XX  VTIT 

both  Otis  and  Franklin  seem  at  first  to  have  leaned.  •      _^ '^ 

A  petition  to  the  king  and  memorials  to  each  house  1765. 
of  Parliament  were  also  prepared,  in  which  the  cause  of 
the  colonies  was  eloquently  pleaded.  .Ruggles  refused 
to  sign  these  papers,  on  the  ground  that  they  ought  first 
to  be  approved  by  the  several  Assemblies,  and  'should 
be  forwarded  to  England  as  their  acts.  Ogden,  one  of 
the  New  Jersey  delegates,  withheld  his  signature  on  the 
same  plea.  The  delegates  from  New  York  did  not  sign, 
because  they  had  no  special  authority  for  their  attend- 
ance ;  nor  did  those  of  Connecticut  or  South  Carolina, 
their  commissions  restricting .  them  to  a  report  to  their 
respective  Assemblies.  The  petition  and  memorials, 
signed  by  the  other  delegates,  were  transmitted  to  En- 
gland for  presentation.  ^ov  4. 

The  several  colonial  Assemblies,  at  their  earliest  ses-  ' 
sions,  gave  to  the  proceedings  a  cordial  approval.  The 
conduct  of  Ruggles,  in  refusing  his  signature,  Was  se- 
verely censured  by  the  Massachusetts  representatives. 
Ogden  was  burned  in  effigy  by  the  people  of  New  Jersey. 
The  first  day  of  November,  appointed  for  the  Stamp 
Act  to  go  into  operation,  came  and  went,  but  not  a  stamp 
was  any  where  to  be  seen.  Two  companies  of  rioters 
paraded  that  evening  the  streets  of  New'  York,  demand- 
ing the  delivery  of  the  stamps,  which  Golden,  on  the  res- 
ignation of  the  stamp  distributer,  and  his  refusal  to  re- 
ceive them,  had  taken  into  the  fort.  Golden  was  hung 
in  effigy.  His  carriage  was  seized,  and  made  a  bonfire 
of  under  the  muzzles  of  the  guns  ;  after  which  the  mob 
proceeded  to  a  house  in  the  outskirts,  then  occupied  by 
Major  James,  of  the  Royal  Artillery,  who  had  made  him- 
self obnoxious  by  his  free  comments  on  the  conduct  of 
the  colonists.  James's  furniture  and  property  were  de- 


-532  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  stroved,  as  Hutchinson's  had  been.      General  Gage,  the 

XXVIII 

commander-in-chief  of  the  British  forces  in  America,  was 

1765.  at  New  York,  but  the  regular  garrison  in  the  fort  was 
very  small.  Alarmed  for  the  safety  of  the  city,  and  not 
willing  to  take  any  responsibility,  as  Sir  Henry  Moore, 
the  recently  appointed  governor,  was  every  day  expect- 
Nov.  5.  edj  Golden  agreed,  by  Gage's  advice,  the  captain  of '  a 
British  .ship  of  war  in  the  harbor  having  refused  to  re- 
ceive them,  to  give  up  the  stamps  to  the  mayor  and  cor- 
poration. They  were  accordingly  deposited  in  the  City 
Hall,  under  a  receipt  given  by  the  mayor. 

These  proceedings  had  been  under  the  control  of  the 
inferior  class  of  people,  of  whom  Isaac  -Sears>  formerly  a 
ship-master,  and  now  inspector  of  potashes,  was  a  con- 
Nov.  e.  spicuous  leader.  The  next  day  a  meeting  was  called  of 
the  wealthier  inhabitants,  and  a  committee  was  appoint- 
ed, of  which  Sears  was  a  member,  with  four  colleagues, 
to  correspond  with  the  other  colonies.  This  commit- 
tee soon  brought  forward  an  agreement  to  import  no 
more  goods  from  Great  Britain  till  the  Stamp  Act  was 
repealed — the  commencement  of  a  system  of  retaliation 
on  the  mother  country  repeatedly  resorted  to  in  the 
course  of  the  struggle.  This  noil-importation  agree- 
ment, to  which  a  non-consumption  agreement  was  pres- 
ently added,  besides  being  extensively  signed  in  New 
York,  was  adopted  also  in  Philadelphia  and  Boston.  At 
the  same  time,  and  as  part  of  the  same  plan,  a;  combi- 
nation was  entered  into  for  the  support  of  American 
manufactures,  the  wearing  of  American  cloths,  and  the 
increase  of  sheep  by  ceasing  to  eat  lamb  or  mutton. 

Business,  suspended  for  a  while;  was  presently  re- 
sumed. Stamped  papers  were  required  in  judicial  pro- 
ceedings, but  by  continuing  the  cases,  before  them,  or 
going  on  without  notice  of  the  deficiency,  even  the 


PASSAGE  AND  REPEAL  OF  THE  STAMP  ACT.   533 

judges,   after  some    hesitation,   concurred  in  nullifying  CHAPTER 

the  act.  __ 

A  change  in  the  English  ministry,  which  took  place  1765. 
in  July,  and  the  news  of  which  reached  America  in  Sep- 
tember, encouraged  the  colonists  in  the  stand  they  had 
taken..  This  change  originated  in  -domestic  reasons 
wholly  unconnected  with  colonial  polity  ;  it  was  regard- 
ed, however,  as  favorable  to  the  general  cause  of  freedom. 
The  old  Whig  aristocracy,  which  had  governed  the  king- 
dom since  the  accession  of  the  house  of  Hanover,  had 
split  up  of  late  into  several  bitter  and  hostile  factions, 
chiefly  founded  on  mere  personal  considerations.  Pitt's 
repeated  attacks  on  former  ministries,  and,  at  last,  his 
forcing  himself  into  power,  had  contributed  not  a  little 
to  this  result.  The  accession  of  George  III.  had  given 
rise  to  a  new  party,  by  which  Pitt"  himself  had  been 
superseded — a  party  which  called  themselves  "  king's 
friends,"  composed  partly  of  political  adventurers  frqm 
among  the  Whigs,  such  as  Grenville,  the  late  minister, 
but  partly  also  of  the  representatives  of  the  old  Tory 
families,  for  half  a -century  previous  excluded  by  the 
Whigs  from  office.  These  "  king's  friends"  were  re- 
garded as  hostile  to  popular  rights,  and  were  looked 
upon  by  the  great  body  of  the  middle  class  with  very 
jealous  eyes.  It  was  their  distinguishing '  doctrine  that 
the  authority  of  the  king  had  been  usurped^ and  en- 
croached upon  by  the  House  of  Commons.  The  Mar- 
quis of  Rockingham,  the  new  minister,  leader  of  one  of 
the  fragments  of  the  old  Whig  party,  was  liberally  dis- 
posed ;  but  as  yet  there  hardly  existed  in 'England  a 
popular  party  in  our  American  sense.  The  interests  of 
trade  and  manufactures  were  not,  indeed,  without  their 
representatives,  chosen  from  some  of  the  large  towns, 
but  a  great  part  of  the  boroughs  were  "  rotten" — the 


534  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  property,  that  is,  of  one  or  more  individuals,  who  in  fact 

XXVIII. 

named  the  representatives  ;  while  money,  in  the  shape  of 

1765.  bribes;  decided  the  choice  in  many  of  the  rest.     The 
House  of  Commons  represented  a  narrow  aristocracy, 
the  majority  of  the  members  being  substantially  nomi- 
nated by  the  great  landholders.      The  -House,  thus  cho- 
sen, debated  with  closed  doors,  only  a  few  spectators  be- 
ing admitted  as  a  special  favor.      To  publish  an  account 
of  their  proceedings  was  a  breach  of  privilege,  and  only 
brief  and  imperfect  sketches,  even  of  the  principal  debates, 
found  their  way  into  print.      Faint  signs  were  but  just 
beginning  to  appear  of  that  social  revolution  which  has 
created  the  modern  popular  party  of  Great  Britain  and 
Europe,  giving  complete  publicity  to  legislative  proceed- 
ings, and  organizing   public  opinion   as   a   regular  and 
powerful  check  upon  authority. , 

1766.  "     In  the  address  from  the  throne  at  the  opening  of  the 
Jan      session,  the  new  ministry  brought  the  state  of  colonial 

affairs  -before  Parliament.  They  produced  the  corre- 
spondence of  the  colonial  governors  and  other  papers  re- 
lating to  the  late  disturbance.  Numerous  petitions  from 
British  merchants  for  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  were 
also  presented  to  the  two  houses. 

Pitt,  for  some  time  past  withdrawn  by  sickness  from 
public  affairs,  was  unconnected,  at  this  moment,  with 
either  Grenville's  or  Rockingham's  party.  He  now  ap- 
peared in  his  place  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  de- 
livered his  opinion,  "  that  the  kingdom  had  no  right  to 
levy  a  tax  on  ihe  colonies."  «  Th6  Commons  in  Amer- 
ica, represented  in  their  several  assemblies,  have  invaria- 
bly exercised  the  constitutional  right  of  giving  and  grant- 
ing their  own  money  ;  they  would  have  been  slaves  if 
they  had  not ;  fit  the  same  time,  this  kingdom  has  ever 
possessed  the  power  of  legislative  and  commercial  con- 


PASSAGE  AND  REPEAL  OF  THE  STAMP  ACT.   535 

trol.      The  colonies  acknowledge  your,  authority  in  all  CHAPTER 

things  with  the.  sole  exception  that  you  shall  not  take 

their  money  out  of  their  pockets  without  their  consent."  1766. 

This  decisive  avowal  by  Pitt  made  a  profound  im- 
pression on  the  House.  After  a  long  pause,  Grenville 
rose  to  vindicate  the  Stamp  Act.  The  tumults  in  Amer- 
ica bordered,'  he  averred,  on  open  rebellion  ;  bui  if  the 
doctrines  now  promulgated  were  upheld,  they- would  soon 
lose  that  name,  and  become  a  revolution.  Taxation  was 
a  branch  of  the  sovereign  power,  constantly  exercised  by 
Parliament  over  the  unrepresented.  Resorting,  then,  to 
a  method  of  intimidation  common  with  politicians,  "the 
seditious  spirit  of  the  colonies,"  he  said,  "  owes  its  birth 
to  the  faction  in  this  House."  This  invidious  assault 
was  met  by  Pitt  with  characteristic  intrepidity.  "  A 
charge  is  brought  against  gentlemen  sitting  in  ihis 
House  of  giving  birth  to  sedition  in  America.  The 
freedom  with  which  they  have  spoken  their  sentiments 
against  this  unhappy  act  is  imputed  to  them  as  a  crime. 
But  the  imputation  shall  not  discourage  me."  '.<  We 
are  told  America  is  obstinate — America  is  almost  in 
open  rebellion.  Sir,  I  rejoice  that  America  has  resisted. 
Three  millions  of  people  so  dead  to  all  the  feelings  of 'lib- 
erty as  voluntarily  to  submit  to  be  slaves,  would  have 
been  fit  instruments  to  make  slaves  of  all  the  rest." 
"The  Americans  have  been  wronged!  They  have 
been  driven  to  madness  by  injustice !  Will  you  punish 
them  for  the  madness  you  have  occasioned  ?  No !  Let 
this  country  be  the  first  to  resume  its  prudence'  and  tem- 
per ;  I  will  pledge  myself  for  the  colonies,  that  on  their 
part  animosity  and  resentment  will  cease." 

The  new  ministry  were  under  no  obligation  to,  support 
the  policy  of  their  predecessors.  Anxious  to  escape  the 
difficulty  by  the  readiest  means,  they  brought  in  a  bill 


536  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  for  repealing  the  Stamp  Act.      Frankljn,  summoned  to 

XXVIII  • 

_the  bar  of  the  House  as  a  witness,  testified  that  the  act 

1766.  could  never  be  enforced.  His  prompt  and  pointed  an- 
swers gained  him  great  credit  for  information,  acuteness, 
and  presence  of  mind.  In  favor  of  repeal,  Burke,  intro- 
duced into  Parliament  by  Rbckingham,  to  whom  he  had 
been  private  secretary,  and  for  one  of  whose  rotten  bor- 
oughs he  sat,  gave  his  eloquent  support.  In  spite  of  a 
very  strenuous  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  supporters 
of  the  late  ministry,  the  bill  of  repeal  was  carried  in  the 
Commons  by  a  vote  of  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  to 
one  hundred  and  sixty-seven. 

March  28.  But  the  ministers  by  no  means  went  the  length  of 
Pitt.  They  placed  the  repeal  on  the  ground  of  expedi- 
ency merely,  and  they  softened  the  opposition  by  another 
bill  previously  passed,  which  asserted  the  power  and  right 
of  Parliament  "  to  bind  the  colonies Jn  all  cases  whatso- 
ever." Lord  Camden,  formerly  Chief-justice  Pratt,  made 
a  vigorous  opposition  to  thi$  bill  in  the  House  of  Lords. 
"  My  position  is  this — I  repeat  it ;  I  will  maintain  it  to 
the  last  hour — taxation  and  representation  are  insepara- 
ble. The  position  is  founded  in  the  law  of  nature.  It 
is  more  :  jt  is  itself  an  eternal  law  of  nature."  Lord 
Mansfield,  on  the  other  hand,  maintained  the  sovereign 
power  of  Parliament  as  including  the  right  to  tax ;  an 
idea  quite  too  flattering  to  the  pride  of  authority  to.  be 
easily  relinquished. 
I 


TOWNSHEND'S  SCHEME  OF  COLONIAL  TAXATION.  537 


CHAPTER    XXIX. 

TOWNSHEND'S  SCHEME  OF  COLONIAL  TAXATION.  REPEAL 
OF  THE  NEW  TAXES  EXCEPT  THAT  ON  TEA.  LOCAL 
AFFAIRS.  TERRITORIAL  CONTROVERSIES.  FIRST  SET- 
TLEMENTS IN  TENNESSEE.  KENTUCKY  EXPLORED. 

J.N  spite  of  the  Parliamentary  claim  of  power  to  bind  CHAPTER 

the  colonies  in  all  cases  whatsoever,  the  repeal  of  the 

Stamp  Act  produced  throughout  America  a  great  burst  1766. 
of  loyalty  and  gratitude.      Virginia  voted  a  statue  to  the     May. 
king.      New  York  voted  statues  to  the  king  and  to  Pitt, 
both  of  which  were  presently  erected.      Maryland  voted 
a  statue  to  Pitt  and  a  portrait  of  Lord  Camden.     Faneuil 
Hall  was  adorned  with  full-length  pictures  of  Barre  and 
Conway .      Pitt  became  more  than  ^ever  a  popular  idol. 
Resolutions  of  thanks  to  him  and  others  were  agreed  to 
by  most  of  the  colonial  Assemblies. 

A  resolution  of  the  House  of  Commons  had  demanded 
indemnity  from  the  colonies  for  such  crown  officers  as 
had  suffered  losses  in  the  late  •  Stamp  Act  riots.  New 
York  promptly  complied.  After  much  urging  by  the 
governor,  Massachusetts  passed  a  similar  act ;  but  a 
free  pardon  to  the  rioters  inserted  in  it  betrayed  the  state 
of  public  feeling,  and  gave  great  offense  in  England. 

As  the  first  burst  of  exultation  died  away,  new  dis- 
contents began  to  spring  up.  The  Stamp  Act  was  re- 
pealed, but  the  "  Sugar  Act"  remained  in  force  ;  and, 
though  modified  by  a  still  further  reduction  of  the  duties 
on  molasses  to  one  penny  the  gallon,  it  continued  to  give 
great  dissatisfaction,  especially  in  the  northern  colonies. 


538  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  Another   modification   of  that   act  prohibited   all  direct 
YYTY 

trade  with  France.      But  iron  and  lumber,  lately  placed 

1766.  in.  the  list  of  "  enumerated  articles,"  were  allowed  to  be 
exported  to  European  ports  south  of  Cape  Finisterre. 

The  short-lived  ministry  of  the  Marquis  of  Rocking- 
Atig.  ham  was  speedily  overturned  by  a  very  heterogeneous 
combination,  the  nominal  head  of  which  was  Pitt,  now 
created  Earl  of  Chatham.  The  Duke  of  Grafton  and 
Lord  Camden  also  had  seats  in  this  new  ministry  as 
well  as  Lord  Shelburne,  to  whose  department,  as  secre- 
tary of  state,  the  management  of  the  colonies  particu- 
-  larly  appertained.  But  J;his  liberal  side  of  the  new  ad- 
ministration was  more  than  counterbalanced  by  another 
section  of  it  composed  of  "  king's  friends ;" .  and,  as  the 
failing  health  of  Pitt  soon  disqualified  him  for  business, 
they  speedily  acquired  the  chief  direction  of  affairs. 
This  was  the  ministry  which  Burke  afterward  so  wittily 
described  as  "  a  piece  of  diversified  mosaic,  a  tesselated 
pavement  without  cement,  here  a  bit  of  black  stone,  there 
a  bit  of  white,  patriots  and  courtiers,  king's  friends  and 
Republicans,  Whigs  and  Tories,  treacherous  friends  and 
open  enemies,  a  very  curious  show,  but  utterly  unsafe 
.to  touch  and  unsure  to  stand  upon." 

The  place  of  chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  on  whom 
the  suggestion' of  ways  and  meaiis  devolves,  was  held  by 
Charles  Townshend,  a  man  of  brilliant  parts,  but  with- 
out any  settled  principles.  As  a  member  of  Grenville's 
ministry,  he  had  supported  and  advocated  the  Stamp 
Act.  In  the  repeal  of  that  act  he  had  joined  so  con- 
spicuously as  to  have  received  from  Massachusetts  a 

1767.  special  yote  of  thanks.     At  the  very  first  session  of  Par- 
Jan-     liament  after  the  formation  of  the  new  ministry,  Towns- 
hend brought  forward  a  new  Scheme  for  raising  a  revenue 
in  America ;  not  only  for  maintaining  a  standing  army 


TOWNSHEND'S  SCHEME  OF  COLONIAL  TAXATION.  539 

in  the  colonies,  but  to  provide  also,  agreeably  to  a  clause  CHAPTER 

to   that  effect  inserted  in  the  bill,   permanent  salaries _ 

for  the  governors  and  judges,  so  as  to  make  them  inde-  1767. 
pendent  of  the  colonial  Assemblies — an  arrangement  fre- 
quently demanded  hitherto  by  the  royal  governors  under 
express  instructions  from  the  crown,  but  never  yet  ob- 
tained except  in  Virginia.  The  opponents  of  the  Stamp 
Act,  or  some  of  them,  especially  Pitt,  had  taken  a  dis- 
tinction between  a  direct  tax  levied  on  the  colonies  and 
commercial  imposts  which  might  be  supposed  to  fall  un- 
der the  admitted  parliamentary  right  of  regulating  trade: 
Of  this  distinction  Townshend  took  advantage  in  fram- 
ing his  new  project — -but  in  one  respect  his  bill  violated 
the  established  policy  of  the  mother, country.  The  royal 
negative  had  been  repeatedly  placed  on  colonial  acts  levy- 
ing imposts  on  British  goods.  But  this  bill,  along  with 
tea,  included  paints,  paper,  glass,  and  lead: — articles  of 
British  produce — as  objects  of  custom-house  taxation  in 
the  colonies.  The  exportation  of  tea  to  America  was  en- 
couraged by  another  act,  allowing  for  five  years  a  draw- 
back.of  the  whole  duty  payable  on  the  importation. 

The  impossibility  of  enforcing  the  Stamp  Act,  not  any 
sense  of  right  or  justice,  had  produced  its  repeal.  This 
new  act  of  Townshend's,  the  immediate  cause  of  all  the 
subsequent  troubles,  was  supposed  to  be  of  easier  execu- 
tion, and  passed  with  very  little  opposition.  By  another  June, 
act,  reorganizing  the  colonial  custom-house  .system,  a 
Board  of  Revenue  Commissioners  for  America  was  estab- 
lished, to  have  its  seat  at  Boston. 

A  scheme  was  also  proposed,  though  not  acted  upon, 
for  transferring  to  the  mother  country  a"nd  converting 
into  a  source  of  revenue  the  issue  of  the  colonial  paper 
money.  This,  as  well  as  the  payment  of  the  crown  officers 
out  of  a  common  parliamentary  revenue,  was  a  favorite 


540  HISTORY-OP    THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  project  with  pownall,  late  governor  of  Massachusetts,  and 

now  a  member  of  Parliament,  and  was  zealously  advo- 

1767.  cated  in  his  recently -published  work,  on  the  "Adminis- 
tration of  the  Colonies."  Pownall  insisted,  however,  that 
the  British  dominions  ought  to  be  'consolidated  into  one 
empire,  by  allowing  to  the  colonists  a  parliamentary 
representation,  without  which,  as  he  maintained,  Parlia- 
ment had  no  right  to  levy  taxes  on  America. 
.  Notwithstanding  the  late  Quartering  Act,  the  Assem- 
bly of  New  York  had  made  but  scanty  provision  for  the 
troops  stationed  in  that  province.  Though  urged  by  a 
letter  from  Lord  Shelburne  to  a  more  full  compliance, 
they  had  persisted  in  refusing ;  and  this  obstinacy  was 
now  punished  by  an  act,  passed  in  spite  of  PownalPs 
zealous  opposition,  which  forbade  the  New  York  Assem- 
bly to  legislate  for  other  purposes  till  full  provision  had 
first  been  made  for  the  troops.  Georgia  had  displayed 
some  stubbornness  on  this  same  point ;  but  the  with- 
drawal of  the  troops,  leaving  the  colony  exposed  to  In- 
dian invasion  from  without  and  negro  insurrection  with- 
in, soon  brought  the  Assembly  to  terms. 

The  passage 'of  these  acts,  and  the  determination  they 
evinced  to  raise  a  parliamentary  revenue1  in  America, 
brought  the  colonists  in  a  body  to  the  ground  originally 
taken  by  Otis,  that  taxes  on  trade,  if  designed  to  raise 
a  revenue,  were  just  as  much  a  violation  of  their  rights 
as  any  other  tax.  ,  This  view  was  ably  supported  in  a 
series  of  "  Letters  from  a  Farmer  in  Pennsylvania  to  the 
Inhabitants  of  the  British  Colonies,"  written  by  John 
Dickinson,  and  designed  to  show  the  danger  of  allowing 
any  precedent  of  parliamentary  taxation  to  be  establish- 
ed on  grounds  no  matter  how  specious;  or  to  any  extent 
no  matter  how  trifling ;  for  who  could  tell  to  what  lengths 
such  a  precedent  might  ultimately  be  pushed  ?  These 


TOWNSHEND'S  SCHEME  OF  COLONIAL  TAXATION.  5  4  ^ 

letters  had  a  great  circulation  in  the  colonies,  and  Frank-  CHAPTER. 

lin  caused  an  edition  to  be  published  in  London.      At  1 

first  he  had  inclined  to  the  distinction  between  internal  1767. 
and  external  taxation,  but  he  now'  adopted  the  views  of 
Otis   and  Dickinson.      The   colonial    newspapers,  some 
twenty -five  or  more  in  number,  began  to  teem  with  es- 
says on  colonial  rights. 

On  Bernard's  refusal  to  summon  a  special  session  of 
'the  General  Court  to  take  the  new  acts  of  Parliament 
into  consideration,  a  public  meeting  was  held  in  Boston,  Oct.  28. 
at  which  resolutions  were  adopted  to  encourage  "  in- 
dustry, economy,  and  manufactures."  A  large  commit- 
tee was  appointed  to  obtain  subscribers  to  an  agreement 
to  discontinue  the  importation  of  British  goods,  and  the 
consumption  of  such  as  were  not  absolute  necessaries. 
It  was  thought  that  wqolens  and  linens  might  soon  be 
produced  sufficient  for  domestic  use.  Particular  atten- 
tion to  their  manufacture  was  recommended.  _ Similar 
resolutions  were  adopted  in  other  towns,  and  the  non- 
importation agreement  was  very  generally  subscribed, 
not  in  Boston  only,  but  throughout  the  province.  • .  This 
example  was  presently  imitated  in  Providence,  New 
York,  and  Philadelphia.  The  influence  of  John  Went- 
worth,rwho  had  lately  succeeded  his  uncle  'as  governor  of 
New  Hampshire,  prevented  the  merchants  of  Portsmouth 
from  coming  heartily  into  the  scheme.  It  was  eagerly 
adopted  in  Connecticut,  where  William  Pitkin,  a  more 
ardent  patriot,  had  superseded  the  moderate  Fitch  as  gov- 
ernor. 

When  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  met,  the  Dec.  so. 
charter  and  the  recent  acts  of  Parliament  were  read  in 
the  House,  and  a  large  committee  was  appointed  to  con- 
sider the  state  of  the  province.      To  Dennis  de  Berdt,  a  ^753 
London  merchant,  appointed  Agent  for  the  colony,  a  long     Jan. 


542  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED   STATES.   - 

CHAPTER  letter  of  instructions  was  presently  sent,  and  with  it  a 

XXIX  '  ' 

1_  petition  to  the  king,  and  letters  urging  the  rights  of  the 

1768.  province,  addressed  to  Lord  Shelburne,  General  Conway, 
the  Marquis  of  Rockingham,  Lords  Camden  and  Chat- 
ham, and  the  lorUs  commissioners  of  the  treasury.  What 
Feb.  11.  was  more  to  the  purpose,  a  circular  letter  was  also  is- 
sued to  the  speakers  of  the  popular  branch  of  the  several 
colonial  Assemblies,  Inviting  co-operation  and  mutual 
consultation  for  the  defense  of  colonial  rights. 

Oxenbridge  Thatcher,,  was  dead,  but  James  Otis,  the 
leader  in  these  measures,  whose  election  as  speaker  had 
been  negatived  by  Bernard,  /found  earnest  and  able  sup- 
porters in  his  three  Boston  colleagues,  Thomas  Gushing, 
Samuel  Adams,  and  John  Hancock.  After  the  rejection 
of  Otis,  Gushing,  descended  from  an  ancient  colonial  fam- 
ily, and  extensively  connected,  had  been  "chosen  speak- 
er of  the  House.  Samuel  Adams  was  a  stern  Puritan, 
a  true  representative  of  the  founders  of  Massachusetts, 
from  his  early  youth  a  warm  politician  and  ardent  op- 
poser  of  prerogative,  but  till  recently  without  much  in- 
fluence. Educated  at  Cambridge  and  intended  for  the 
ministry,  circumstances  had  forced  him  to  adopt  his 
father's  business  of  a  merchant.  Not  succeeding  in  that, 
he  had  accepted  the  office  of  collector  of  town  taxes  ;  but 
some  deficiency  in  his  accounts- — for  he  was  no  man  of 
business — threw  him  for  a  while  into  the  shade.  The 
recent  troubles  had  brought  him  conspicuously  forward. 
His  energy  and  courage  made  him  leader  in  the  Boston 
town  meetings.  Chosen  in  Thatcher's  place  as  one  of 
the  representatives^  he  accepted  the  office  of  clerk  of  the 
House — a  place  which  not  only  gave  him  a  small  in- 
come, but  also  enabled  him  to  exercise  a  certain  influ- 
ence over  the  course  of  proceeding.  While  he  devoted 
himself  to  politics,  it  was  chiefly  the  industry  of  his  wife 


TOWNSHEND'S  SCHEME  OF  COLONIAL  TAXATION.  543 

that  supported  the  family.      But,  though  poor,  Adams  CHAPTER 

was  incorruptible.      It  had  been  suggested  to  quiet  him 

with  a  government  place  ;  but  Hutchinson  declared  that  1768. 
such  was  his  "obstinacy  and  inflexible  disposition,"  that 
no  gift  nor  office  could  ever  conciliate  him.  The  father 
and  grandfather  of  John  Hancock  had  been  country, min- 
isters. An  uncle,  who  began  as  a  bookseller,  but  be- 
came afterward  a  merchant  and  government  contractor, 
left  him  a  fortune  of  $200,000,  with  a  reversionary 
interest  in  half  as  much  more.  Young,  and  of  gay  tem- 
per, winning  manners,  and  a  strong  love  of  popular  ap- 
probation, Hancock  acted  very  much  under  the  guidance 
of  Adams,  who  saw  the  policy  of  putting  him  forward  as 
a  leader. 

Of  the  country  members,  none  had  so  much  weight 
as  Joseph  Hawley,  a  lawyer  of  Northampton  ;  a  man  of 
strong  religious  feelings  and  without  personal  ambition, 
but  whose  decision  of  character  and  reputation  for  disin- 
terestedness and  sound  judgment  gave  him  a  powerful 
influence. 

The  Massachusetts  House  of  Representatives  consist- 
ed at  this  time  of  upward  of  a  hundred  members,  \)yr 
far  the  most  numerous  assembly  in  America.  Its  de- 
bates had  begun  to  attract  attention,  and  a  gallery  had 
lately  been  erected  for  the  accommodation  of  spectators. 
The  council,  purged  by  dropping  Hutchinson  and  sev- 
eral other  officials,  was  now  chiefly  influenced  by  James 
Bowdoih.  His  grandfather,  a  French  Huguenot,  had 
migrated  to  New  England  shortly  after  the  revocation 
of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  His  father,  from  very  small  be- 
ginnings, had  acquired  the  largest  fortune  in  Boston,  all 
of  which,  being  an  only  child,  Bowdtiin  had  inherited  at 
the  age  of  twenty -one.  In  the  prime  of  life,  of  elevated 
character  and  a  studious  turn  of  mind,  for  several  years 


544  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  past  a  member  of  the  council,  he  acted  in  close  concert 

with  Adams,  to  whose  impetuous  ardor  and  restless  act- 

1768.  ivity  his  less  excitable  but  not  less  firm  temper  s_erved 
as  .a  useful  counterpoise. 

Meanwhile  the  merchants  had  been  greatly  irritated 
by  new  strictness  in  the  collection  of  duties,  and  by  suits 
even  for  past  breaches  of  the  revenue  laws.  Shortly 
after  the  meeting  of  the  new  General  Court,  the  seizure 
of  the  sloop  Liberty,  belonging  to  Hancock,  on  the  charge 
of  having  smuggled  on  shore  a  cargo  of  wine  from  Ma- 
June  10.  deira,  occasioned  a  great  riot.  The  newly-appointed 
revenue  commissioners  fled  for  their  lives,  first  on  board 
a  ship-of-war  in  the  harbor,  and  then  to  the  barracks  on 
Castle  Island,  where  a  company  of  British  artillery  was 
Juie  13.  stationed.  A  town  meeting,  held  in  Faneuil  Hall,  peti- 
tioned the  governor  to  remove  the  ship-of-war  from  the 
harbor.  The  council  passed  resolutions  strongly  con- 
demning the  rioters,  but  would  not  advise  that  the  com- 
missioners might  safely  return  to  the  town,  nor  could  the 
governor  induce  them  to  take  any  decided  step  of  any 
sort.  The  House  took  no  notice  at  all  of  the  matter.  An 
attempt  to  prosecute  those  engaged  in  the  riot  failed  for 
want  of  witnesses,  and  even  the  proceedings  against  the 
vessel  had  to  be  given  up  for  the  same  cause. 
.  In  compliance  with  orders  from  Lord  Hillsborough, 
lately  appointed  to  the  newly-created  office  qf  secretary 
for  the  colonies,  Bernard  called  upon  the  House^  to  re- 
scind the  circular  issued  by  the  last  court,  at  which  great 
offense  had  been  taken  in  England.  The  House  justi- 
fied that  document  against  Hillsbordugh's  charges  of 
having  been  passed  by  surprise  at  the  end  of  the  ses- 
sion, but  disclaimed  any  responsibility  for  or  control 
July,  over  the  doing  at  a  former  court.  By  a  vote  of  ninety- 
two  to  seventeen  they  refused  to  rescind,  and  a  dissolu- 


TOWNSHEND'S    SCHEME  OF  COLONIAL  TAXATION.  545 
tion  was  the  consequence.      The  seventeen  "  rescinders"  CHAPTER 

XXIX 

became  objects  of  great1  public  odium.  :  ' 

Lord  Hillsborough,  whom  Franklin  describes  as  "a  1768. 
little,  alert  man  of  business,  but  passionate  '  and  hea<J- 
strong,"  4iad  Written  to  the  governors  of  the  other  prov- 
inces, urging  them  to  prevent  their  respective  Assemblies 
from  paying  any  attention  to  the  Massachusetts  circular: 
But  already  Connecticut,  New  Jersey,  Virginia,  and 
Georgia  had  given  ,  a  cordial  response  ;  and  in  Maryland> 
and  New  York,  Hillsborough?s  interference  produced  an 
effect  the  opposite  of  what  he  desired.  "  The  Burgesses 
of  Virginia  voted,  a  memorial  to  the  Lords  and  a  remon- 
strance to  the  Commons  against  the  late  acts  •  of  Parlia- 
ment. They  dwelt  with  particular  emphasis  upon  the 
act  suspending  the  legislative  powers  of  the  New  York 
Assembly  —  a.  stretch  of  authority  already  adverted  to  m 
Massachusetts  and  in  other  colonies.  In  consequence 
of  these  resolutions,  Lord  Boutetourt,  who  had  lately 
succeeded  Fauquier  as  governor,  dissolved  the  Assembly. 
The  Assemblies  of  Maryland  and  Georgia,  having  ap- 
proved the  proceedings  of  Massachusetts  and  Virginia, 
were  also  'dissolved. 

The  New  York  Assembly  still  obstinately  refusing  to 
make  the  required  provision  for  the*±roops,  that  'body  was 
dissolved  alsb  ;  but  this  dissolution  made  no  change  in 
the  character  of  the  Assembly,  which  consisted  at  this 
time  of  twenty-seven  members  :  four  for  the  city  and 
countyv  of  s  New  .York,  two  for  the  city  and  courjty  of 
Albany,  two  for  each  of  the  'other  eight  counties,  one 
for  the  borough  of  Westchester,  one  for  the  township  of 
Schenectady,  and  one  for  each  of  the  manors  of  Rensse- 
laerswyk,  Livingston,  and  Courtlandt.  -  At  a  'new  elec- 
tion the  popular  side  was1  even  strengthened.  Besides 
Philip  Livingston,  distinguished  in  the  last  House  as-  an 
-  II.—  M  M 


546  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  advocate  of  colonial  rights,  and  now  again  re-elected  from 

XXIX 

'  '.  the  city  of  New  York,  .and  chosen  speaker,  seats  were 
1768.  obtained  by  George  Clinton  and  Philip  Schuyler,  iihe  one 
an  Ulster  county  lawyer,' of  Irish  descent,  the  other  of 
an  ancient  Dutch  family,  both  men  of  distinguished  firm- 
ness and  energy.  The  new  Assembly  having  followed 
the  example  of  the'  old  one  in  refusing  to  comply  with 
the  requisitions  of  the  Quartering  Act,  another  dissolu- 
tion was  the  speedy  consequence. 

Before  news  had  reached  England  of  the  late  riot  in 
Boston,  two  regiments  from  Halifax  had  been  ordered 
thither.  When  news  of  that  riot  arrived,  two  additional 
regiments  were  ordered  from  Ireland.  The  arrival  of^an 
officer,  sent  by  Gage  from  New  York,  to  provide  quar- 
Sept.  12.  ters  for  these' troops,  occasioned  a  town  meeting  in  Bos- 
ton, by  which  the  governor  was  requested  to  summon  a 
new  Greneral.  Court,. 'which  he  peremptorily  refused  to 
do.  The  meeting  then  recommended  a  convention  of 
delegates  from  aljLthe  towns  in  the  province  to  assemble 
at  Boston  in  >  ten  days;  "  in  consequence  of  prevailing 
apprehensions  of  a  war.  with  France" — such  was  the 
pretense — they  advised  all  persons  not  already  provided 
with  fire-arms  to  procure  them  at  once ;  they,  also  ap- 
pointed a  day  of  fasting  arid  prayer,  to  be  observed  by  all 
the  Congregational  societies.  Delegates  from  more  than 
Sept.  22.  a  hundred  towns  met  accordingly  at  the ,  day  apppirit- 
ed,  chose  Gushing,  speaker  of  the  late  House,  as  their 
chairman,  and  petitioned  Bernard  to  summon  a  General 
Court,  The  governor  not  only  refused  to  receive  their 
petition,  but  denounced  the  meeting  as  treasonable.  In 
view  of  thig  charge*  the  proceedings  were  exceedingly 
cautious  and  moderate.  "  All  pretensions  to  political  au- 
thority were  expressly  disclaimed.  -  In  the  course  of  a 
four  days'  session  a  petition  to  the  king  was  agreed  to, 


TOWNSHEND'S  SCHEME  OF  COLONIAL  TAXATION.  5  4  7 

1  A 

and  a  letter  to  the  agent,  De  Berdt,  of ,. which  the  chief  CHAPTER 

XXIX 

burden  was  to  defend  the  province  against  the  charge  of ]_ 

a  rebellious  spirit.      Such  was  the  first  of  those  popular  1768. 
conventions,  destined  within  a  few  years  to  assume  the 
whole  political  authority  of  the  colonies. 

The  day  after  the  adjournment  the  troops  from  Hali-  Sept.  27. 
fax  arrived.  There  was  room  in  the  barracks  at  the 
castle,  but  Gage,  alarmed  at  the  accounts  from  Massa- 
chusetts, had  sent  orders  from  New  York  td  have  ihe 
two  regiments  quartered  in  the  town.  The  council  were" 
called  upon  to  find  quarters,  but  by  the  very  terms  of 
the  Quartering  Act,  as  they  alleged,  till  the  barracks 
were  full  there  was  no  necessity  to  provide  quarters  else- 
where. Bernard  insisted  that  the  barracks  had  bpen  re- 
served for  the  two  regiments  expebted  from  Ireland,  and 
must,  therefore,  be  considered  as  already  full.  The 
council  replied,  that,  even  allowing  that  to  be  the-  case, 
by  the  terms  of  the  act,  the  provision  of  quarters  -belong- 
ed not  to  them,  but  to  the  local  magistrates.  There 
was  a  large  building  in  Boston  belonging  to  the  prov-r 
ince,  known  as  the  "Manufactory  House,'7-  and  occu- 
pied by  a  number  of  poor  families.  Bernard  pressed 
the  council  to  advise  that  this  building  be  cleared,  and 
prepared  for  the  reception  of  the  troops  ;  but  they  utterly 
refused.  The  governor  then  undertook  to  do  it  on  his 
own  authority.  The  troops  had  already  landed,  under 
cover  of  the  ships  of  war,  to  the  number  of  a  thousand 
men.  Some  of  them  appeared  to  demand  an  entrance- 
into  the  Manufactory  House;  but  the  tenants  were., en- 
couraged to  keep  possession ;  nor  did  the  governor  ven- 
ture to  use  force."'  One  of  the  regiments  encamped  on 
the  Common ;  for  a  part  of  the  other  regiment,  which 
had  no  tents,  the  temporary  use  of  Faneuil  Hall  was  re- 
luctantly yielded ;  to  the  rest'df  it,  the  Town  House,  used 


548  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  also  as  a  State  House,*  all  except  the  council  chamber, 

YYTY 

was  thrown  open  by  the  governor's  order.     It  was  Sun- 

1768.  day.  The  Town  House. was  directly  opposite  the  'meet- 
ing-house of  the  First  Church.  Cannon  were  planted  in 
front  of  it ;  sentinels  were  stationed  in  the  streets;  the 
inhabitants  were  challenged  as  they  passed.  The  de- 
vout were ^grQaily  aggravated  and  annoyed  by  the  beat- 
ing of  drums"  and  the  marching  of  the  troops. 
Oct.  Presently  Gage  came  to  Boston  to  urge  the  provision 
of  quarters.  The  council  directed  his  attention  to  the 
terms  'of  the  .act,  and  referred  him  to  the  selectmen. 
As  the  act  spoke  only  of  justices  of  the  peace,  the  se- 
lectmen declined  to  take  any  steps  in  the  matter.  Ber- 
nard then  constituted  what  he  called  a  Board  of  Justi- 
ces, and  required. them  to  find  quarters ;  but  they  did  not 
-choose  to  exercise  a  doubtful  and  unpopular  authority. 
Gage  was  finally  obliged  to  quarter  t.he  troops  in  houses 
which  he  hired  for  the  purpose,  and  to  procure  out  of  his 
own' military  chest  the  firing,  bedding,  and  other  articles 
mentioned  in  the  Quartering  Act,  the  council  having  de- 
clined to  order  any  expenditure  for  those  purposes,  on  the 
ground  that  the"  appropriation  of  money  belonged  exclu- 
sively to  the  General  Court. 

The  first  Parliament  of  George  III.  had  been  dissolved. 
Dec.  At  the  opening  of  the  new  Parliament  all  the  papers  relat- 
ing to  the  colonies,  and  particularly  to  the  recent  proceed- 
ings in  Massachusetts,  were  laid  before  the  two  houses. 
The  House  of  Lords  severely  censured  those  proceedingSi 
particularly  the  Convention  held  at  Boston.  They  ap- 
proved the'  conduct  of  ministers,  and  recommended  in- 
structions to  the  governor  of  Massachusetts  to  obtain  full 
information  of  all  treasons,  and  to  transmit  the  offenders 
to  England,  to  be  tried  there  under  an  old  statute  of 
Henry  VIII.  for  the  punishment  of  treasons  committed 
out  of  the  kingdom. 


.-  .  ;  .     \ 

TOWNSHEND'S  SCHEME   OF   COLONIAL  TAXATION.  549 
These  resolutions,  sent  down   to   the  Commons,  en-  CHAPTER 

»     '  XXlX 

countered  a  vigorous  opposition,  in  which  Barrer  Burke, __ 

and  Pownall  took  the  lead.      But  they  passed  by  a  Very  1769. 
decided  majority.      Nor  did  this  majority-  misrepresent     Jan> 
the  general  feeling  of  the  British  people.      As  a  body, 
they  considered  the  late  proceedings  in  the  colonies  in- 
dicative of  a  factious  and  rebellious  spirit,  which,  they 
•took  almost  as  a  personal  insult.      "  Every  man  in  En- 
gland," wrote  Franklin,  "  regards  himself  as  a  piece  of  a 
sovereign  over  America,  seems  to  jostle  himself  into  the 
throne  with  the  king,  and  talks  of  our  "subjects,  in  the 
colonies." 

Among  the  other  papers  laid  before  Parliament  were 
certain  letters  of  Bernard,  reflecting  on  the  conduct  of 
the  council  in  the  matters  of  the  late  custom-house  riot 
and  the  quartering  of  the  troops.  It  was -not  yet  the 
fashion  to  print  such  documents ;  but  copies  of  these 
letters  had  been  obtained  by  Bollan,  whom  the  council 
had  lately  appointed  as  their  agent.  -Transmitted  to" 
Boston,  they  served  to  increase  the  already  excessive 
unpopularity  of  Bernard.  The  ministry,  however,  re- 
warded his  zeal  by  making  Rim  a  baronet. 

Among  the  members  of  the  new  Virginia  Assembly 
was  Thomas  Jefferson,  of  Albemarle  county,  where  he 
possessed  .a  handsome  patrimojiial  estate,  originally  set- 
tled by  his  father.  He  had  been  educated  to  the  law, 
but  had  little  taste  for  the  technicalities  and  chicanery 
of  that  profession.  Jefferson  signalized  his  entrance  into 
the  Assembly  by  a  motion  giving  to  masters  of  slaves  an  May  16. 
unrestricted  right  of  emancipation;  but  it  did  not  suc- 
ceed. When  news  of  the  late  parliamentary  proceed- 
ings arrived,  resolutions  we're-  immediately  passed,  which 
the  speaker  was  requested  to  transmit  to  the' Assemblies  of 
the  other  colonies,  maintaining*  the  right  of  the  colonists  to 


550  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  self-taxation,  to  petition  and  remonstrance,  and  to  be  tried 

XXIX 

in  all  cases  by  a  jury  of  the  vicinage.  As  soon  as  Lord 
1769.  Boutetourt  heard  what  was  doing,  he  dissolved  the  As- 
sembly. But  the  members  met  immediately  afterward 
at  a  tavern,  and,  headed  by  Peyton  Randolph,  their  late 
speaker,  entered,  in -their  private  capacity,  into  a  non- 
importation agreement,  similar  to  that  existing  in  sev- 
eral of  the  northern  colonies,  in  which  they  invited  all 
merchants  and  planters  to  join. 

The  House  of  Representatives  of  Massachusetts,  at 
May  31.  their  first  ooming  together,  resolved  that  it  was  incon- 
sistent with  their  dignity  and  freedom  to  deliberate  in 
the  midst  of  an  armed  force ;  and  that  the  keeping  an 
armed  force,  military  and  naval,  in  a.nd  about  the  me- 
tropolis, while  they  were  in  session  there,  was  a  breach 
•  of  privilege.  They  petitioned  the  governor  to  remove 
the  troops  from  Boston,  at  least  during  the  session ;  but 
he  disclaimed  any  authority  over  the  troops.  From  ne- 
cessity, and  under  protest,  the  representatives  submitted 
to  go  through  the  forms  of  organization  by -electing  a 
council ;  but  they  refused  to  enter  upon,  the  business  of 
supplies,  or  any  tiling  else  but  redress  of  grievances. 
The  governor  complained  of  their  conduct  as  an  idle 
June  13.  waste  oi;  public  time  and  money,  and  adjourned  them  to 
Cambridge. 

•  Having  communicated  to  the  House  his  intention  of 
going  to  England,  .called  thither,  as  he  informed  them, 
to  lay  the  state  of  the  province  before  the  king,  the  House 
.  unanimously  voted  a. petition,  humbly  entreating  that  Sir 
Francis  Bernard  might  be  removed  forever  from  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  proVince.  r  They  denounced  a  standing 
army  m  time  of  peace,  without  the  consent  of  the  Gen- 
eral Court,  as  an  invasion  of  natural  rights  and  their 
rights  as  Englishmen,  highly  dangerous  to  the  people, 


TOWNSHEND'S  SCH'EME  OF  COLONIAL  TAX ATION.   551 

without  precedent,  and  unconstitutional.      When  called  CHAPTER 

\  *       3cxrx 
upon  to  refund  the  expenses  already  incurred  in  finding 

quarters  for  the  troops,  and  to  make  provision  also1  for.  1769.  ' 
the  future^  they  rose  to  a  still  more  indignant  strain.  July  15- 
"  Of  .all  the  new  regulations,  the  Stamp  Act  not  except- 
ed,  this  under  consideration '  is  most  •  excessively  unrea- 
sonable." "  Your  excellency  must  therefore  excuse  us, 
in  this  express  declaration,  that  as  we  Can  not  consist-* 
ently  with  our  honor  and  interest,  and  much  less  with 
the  duty  we  owe  our  constituents,  so  we  never  will  make 
provision  for  the  purposes  in  your  several  messages  above 
mentioned."  Finding'  the  representatives  unmanage- 
able, Bernard  prorogued  the  court  and  departed,  leaving  Aug.  i. 
the  administration  >  in  the  hands 'of  Lieutenant-governor 
Hutchinson.  Not  long  after  his  departure  the  grand 
jury  of  Suffolk  county  found  indictments  against  him 
for  libel,  in  writing  letters  to  the  king's  ministers,  slan- 
dering the  inhabitants  of  the  province. 

The  spirit  evinced  in  Virginia  and  Massachusetts,  the 
two  leading  colonies,  pervaded  almost  the  whole,  conti- 
nent. The  Assembly  of  South 'Carolina  refused  to  find 
quarters  for  the  troops  sent  to  .that  province,  and  .they 
adopted  the  Virginia  resolutions,  as  did  also  the '.Assem- 
blies of  Maryland  and  Delaware.  The  North  Carolina 
Assembly  did  the  same  thing,  and  was  dissolved  in  con-  Oct. 
sequence  ;  but  the  members  immediately  reassembled  in 
their  private  capacity,  as  had  been"  done  in  Virginia,  and  ' 
entered  into  the  non-importation  agreement,  which  now, 
for  the  .first  time*  became  pretty  general.  It  had  been 
adopted  even  in  Georgia  and  Rhocte  Island,  hitherto  very 
backward.  New  Hampshire,  also,  in  spite  of  Governor 
Wentworth's  influence,  was-  forced  into  it  byi  threats  of 
non-intercourse.  The  observance,  indeed,  of  this  agrqe- 
rnent  was  by  no  means  always  voluntary.  Many  sub- 


552  HISTORY    OF   THE  /UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  mitted  to  it  only  through  fear.     Its  observance  was  look- 

•y  viv 

_j _ed  after  by  self-constituted  committees,  whose  proceed- 

1769.  ings  were  complained  of,  sometimes  probably  with  good 
reason,  as  partialr  harsh, ,  and  inquisitorial.- 

*  Party  lines  throughout  the  colonies  began  now  to  be 
strictly  drawn.  The  partisans  "of  the  mother  country 
were-  stigmatized  as  Tories^  while,  the  opponents  of  par- 
liamentary taxation  took  the  name  of  Whigs — old  names 
lately  applied  in  England  as  designations  for  the  "  king's 
friends'- 'and  thejr  'opponents.  , 

,  The  struggle,  indeed,  between  the,. two  parties  in  the 
mother  country  had  reached  a  high' pitch.  Wilkes,  in 
his  North  Briton,  had  assailed  the  king's  friends  with  a 
freedom  hitherto  unknown.  The  attempt  to  put  him 
down  by  a  prosecution  ;  his  repeated  expulsions  from  the 
House  of  Commons  ;  and  the  outrage  on  the  rights  of 
the  Middlesex  electors,  by  declaring  another  person  with 
a  far  less  number  of  Votes,  entitled  to  Wilkes's  seat,  on 
the  .ground  that,  having  been  expelled  from  the  House,  ho 
could  no  longer  be  a  candidate — these  proceedings,  which, 
had  converted  Wilkes  into  a  popular  idol,  had  raised  a 
storm  of  indignation,  especially  in  London,  too  formidable 
to  be^  despised.  The  anonymous  Junius  had  begun  to 
write,  and  in  him  the  ministers  found  a  censor  still  more 
terribly.  •  These  attacks,  though  unconnected  with  the 
American  troubles,  yet  originated  in  a  similar  dislike  of 
arbitrary  authority,  and  they  indicated  the  existence  of 
a  spirit  at  home  in  direct  opposition  to  the  principles  pf 
the  •'ministers,. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  session  of  Parliament,  Pow- 
nall  had  moved  the  repeal  of  Townshend's  act,  and  had 
supported  the 'motion  in  an  elaborate  speech,  in  which  he 
showed  that  ihe  total  produce  of  the  new  taxes  for  the 
first  year  had  been  less  than  £16,000 ;  that  the  expenses 


TOWNSHEND'S  SCHEME   OF  COLONIAL  TAXATION.  553 
of  the  new  custom-house  arrangements  had  reduced  the  CHAPTER 

XXIX. 

net  proceeds  of  the  crown  revenue  in  the  colonies  to  only  , 

£295,  while  the  extraordinary  military  expenses  in  1769. 
America  amounted , for  the  same  period  to  ;£  17  0,000  ; 
the  merchants,  meanwhile,  loudly  complaining  of  the  de- 
cline of  trade,  an  $vil  which  the  extension  of  the  non- 
importation agreements  threatened  to  aggravate.  -  Instead, 
qf  meeting  Pownall's  motion  by  a  direct  negative,  the 
ministers  proposed  the  reference  of  the  subject  to  the 
next  session,  and,  shortly  after  the  prorogation,  Hills- 
borough  addressed  a  circular  to  the  colonial  governors, 
announcing  the  intention  to  repeal  all  clauses  of  Towns- 
hend's  act  which 'imposed  duties  on  British  goods,  such 
duties  being  regarded  as  ""  contrary  to  the  true  principles 
of  commerce."  But  the  duty  on  tea  and  the -right  of 
parliamentary  taxation  being  still  adhere^  to,  this,  an-  . 
nouncement  had  little  effect. 

In  New  York  alone  appeared  some  symptoms,  of  yield- 
ing. Many  of  the  wealthier  proprietors,  especially  those 
belonging  to  the  Church  of  England,  alarmed  at  the  evi- 
dent tendency  of  things,  began  now  to  relax  their  oppo- 
sition. The  legislation  of  the  province  had  been  sus- 
pended for  two  years,  and  two  successive  Assemblies  had 
been  dissolved  in  consequence  of  refusal  to.  cemply  with 
the  terms  of  the  Quartering.  Act.  At'  the-  election  of  a 
new  Assembly,  the  moderate  party,  as  they  called  them- 
selves, made  a  great  effort,  and  not  without  -  success. 
Philip  Livingston,  late  speaker,  a  representative  of  the 
city  and  county  of  New  York  iti  the  two  previous  As- 
semblies, was  now  defeated,  and,  though  returned  from  his 
brother's  manor  of  Livingston,  he  was  presently  ousted 
on  the  ground  of  non-residence.  Clinton  and  Schuyler 
secured  a  re-election ;  but  the  moderate  party  had^a  de- 
cided majority.  By  the  death  of  Sir  Henry  Moore,  the  Sept',  i. 


•554  HISTORY  OF  THE. UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  administration  of  the  government  again  devolved  on  the 
.     .     aged  Golden.      The  new  Assembly  chose  Edmund  Burke 

1769.  as  their  agent  in  England ;  they  even  went  so  far  as  to 
adapt  the  Virginia  resolutions  ;  but  they  gave  great  of- 
fense to  the  more  ardent  patriots  by  yielding  the  point 
on  which  the  two  preceding  Assemblies  had  stood  out, 
and  making  the  required  provision  for  the  troops.      This 
.concession  drew  from  Alexander  M'Dougall,  a  chief  lead- 
er among  the  "  Sons  of  Liberty,?'  a  merchant,  whom  his 
own  effdrts  and  energy  had  raised  from  a  very  humble 
origin,  afterward  a  major-general  in  the  revolutionary 
army,  an  indignant  u  Address  to  th'e  betrayed  Inhab- 
itants of  the  City  and  Colony  of 'New  York,"  calling  a 

Dec.  20.  public  meeting  of  citizens  to  take  the  proceedings  -of 
the  Assembly  into  consideration.  The  Assembly  pro- 
nounced this  address — Schuyler  alone  dissenting — u  a 
false,  seditious,  "and  infamous  libel,"  and  they  committed 
M'Dougall  to  prison — a  proceeding  which  did  but  in- 
crease f  their  reputation  for  lukewarmness,  while  the  im- 
prisoned M'Dougall  was  visited  by  crowds, and  celebrated 

1770.  as  a  martyr.      The  soldiers  revenged  the  cause  of.  the 
Jan.  13.  AssemDiy -by  cutting  down  a  liberty-pole,  erected  by  the 

patriots  as  a  place  of  popular  rendezvous.  The  populace 
retorted  this<  insult ;  and  frequent  brawls  began  to  occur 
between,  them  and  the  soldiers. 

The  seventeen  months  during  which  the  British  troops 
had  been  stationed  in  Boston,  even  the  agreement  of  the 
commanding  officer  to  use  only  a  single  drum  and  fife 
on  Sundays,  haql  by  no  means  reconciled  the  towns- 
people to  their  presence.  A  weekly  paper,  the  "  Journal 
of  the  Times,"  was  filled  .with  all,  sorts  of  stories^  some 
true,  but  the  greater  part  false  or  exaggerated^  on  pur- 
pose to  iseep  up  prejudice  against  the  soldiers.  A  mob 
of  men  and  boys,  encouraged  by  the  sympathy  of  the 


, 

TOWN SH END'S  SCHEME  OF  COLONIAL  TAXATION.  555 
mass  of  the  inhabitants,  made  it  a  constant  practice  to  CHAPTER 

XXIX 

insult  and  provoke  them.  The  result  to  be  expected  t 
soon  followed.  After  numerous  fights  with  straggling  1770. 
soldiers,  a  serious  collision  at  length  took  place.  A  pick- 
et guard  of  eight  men,  provoked  beyond  endurance  by  March  5. 
words  and  blows,  fired  into  a  crowd,  killed  three  personSj 
and  dangerously  wounded  five  others.  The  bells  were 
rung;  a  cry  spread  through  the  town — "  the  soldiers  are 
rising."  It  was  late  at  night;  but  the  population  poured 
into  the  streets  ;  nor  was ,  it  without  difficulty  that  a 
general  combat  was  prevented.  The  next  morning,  at 
an  early  hour,  Faneuil  Hall  .was  filled  with  an  excited 
and  indignant  assembly.  At  a  town  meeting,  legally 
warned,  held  that  afternoon  in  the  old  South  Meeting- 
house, the  largest  building  in  the  town,  it  was  voted 
"  that  nothing  could  bq  expected  to  restore  peace,  and 
prevent  blood  and  carnage,  but  the  immediate  removal 
of  the  troops."  A  committee  was  appointed,  with  Sam- 
uel Adams  as  chairman,  to  carry  this  vote  to  the  lieu- 
tenant governor  and  council.  Adams  entered  the  coun- 
cil chamber  at'  the  head-  of  his  committee,  and  delivered 
his  message,  '  Colonel  Dalrymple,  the  commander  of  the 
troops,  was  present,  as  was  the  commander  of  the  ships 
of  war  in  the  harbor.  '  Hutchinson  disclaimed  any  au- 
thority over  the  soldiers.  Adams  answered  by  a  reference 
ta  that  clause  in  the  charter  which  declared  the  govern- 
or, or,  in  his  absence,  the  lieutenant  governor,  cpmmand- 
er-in-chief  of  all  the  military  and  naval  forces,  in  the 
province.  After  a  consultation  with  Dalrymple,  Hutch- 
inson replied  that  the  colonel  was  willing  to  remove  one 
of  the  regiments  to  the  castle,  if  that  would  satisfy  the 
people.  .  "  Sir,"  said  Adams,  "  if  the  lieutenant  govern- 
or, or  Colonel  Dalrymple,  or  both  together,  have  author- 
ity to  remove  one  regiment?  they  have  authority  to  re- 


556  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  move  two ;  and  nothing  short  of  the  departure  of  both 

regiments  will ,  satisfy  the  public  mind,  or  preserve  the 

1770.  peace  of 'the  province.'.'-  The  town  meeting,  after  the 
return  of  their  committee,  voted  the  lieutenant  governor's 
offer  unsatisfactory.  Hutchison  and  Dalrymple  seem 
'to  have  been  mutually  anxious  to  shift  Upon  each  other 
the  responsibility  of  yielding  to  the  popular  demand. 
Finally,  upon  the  unanimous  advice  of  the  council,  it 
was  agreed  that,  all  the  troops  should  bo  removed, v  the 
colonel  pledging  his  honor  that  mean  while  not  a  single 
soldier  should  be  seen  in  the  streets  after  dark.  The 

0 

funeral  of  the  slain,  attended  by  a  vast  concourse  of 
people,  was  celebrated  with  all  possible  porrtp.  The 
story  of  the  "  Boston  Massacre,"  for  so  it  was  ^called, 
exaggerated  into  a  ferocious  and  unprovoked  assault  by 
brutal  soldiers  on  a  defenseless  people,  produced  every 
where  intense  excitement.  The  officer  and  soldiers  of 
the  pi6ket  guard  were  indicted  and  tried  for  murder. 
They  were  defended,  however,  by  John  Adams  and  Jo- 
siah  Quincy,  fyvo  young  lawyers,  amtfng  the  most 
zealous  of  the  pbpular  loaders ;  and  so  clear  a  case  was 
made  out  in  their  behalf,  that  they  were  all  acquitted 
except  two,  who  were  found  guilty  of  manslaughter, 
and- slightly  punished. 

The  British  cabinet,  after  great  struggles,  had  been 
quite  sifted  of  its  Whig  members.  The  "  king's  friends" 
section  of  it  had  expelled  all  their  opponents,  and  Fran- 
cis  No;th,  eldest  son  of  the  Earl  of  Guilford,  by  cour- 
tesy Lord  North,  as  the  leader  of  that  section,  had  risen 
to  the  head  of  the  ministry.  As  it  happened,  on  the 
very  day  of  the  Boston  massacre  Lord  North  brought 
forward  the  promised  rnotion  to  repeal  the  whole  of 
Townshcnd's  act  exco.pt  the  duty  ori  tea.  ,  That  act,  he 
observed,  had  been  the  occasion  of  most  dangerous,  vro- 


REPEAL  Of  DUTIES  EXCEPT  ON  TEA.  557 

lent,  and  illegal  combinations  >in  America  against  the  CHAPTEII 

importation  and  use  of  British  manufactures.     The  Brit- L. 

ish  merchants  had  petitioned  against  it;  As  to  articles  1770. 
of  British  produce,  ever  to  have  taxed  them  was  indeed 
an  absurd  violation  of  established  policy..  The  tax  on 
tea  stood  on  a  different  ground.  \VluMi  (hat  tax  was 
imposed,  a  drawback  bud  been  allowed  on  tho  exporta- 
tion of  tea  to  America ;  and  as  tho  •  colonists,  were  tjius 
relieved  of  a  duty  amounting,  on  an  average,  to  a  shil- 
ling a  pound,  they  had  no  right  to  complain  of  a  tax  of 
threepence,  since  they  gained,  in  fact,  ninepence  thft 
pound  by  tho  change.  He  could  have  wished  to  repeal 
the  whole  act,  could  (hat  have  been  done  without  giving 
up  tho  right  of  taxing  the  colonies — a  right  he  would 
contend  for  to  tho  last  hour  of  his  life.  The  proposed 
repeal,  without  any  relaxation  of  authority,  was  intend- 
ed as  a  persuasive  to  brini*  the  colonists  back  to  their 
duty.  The  existing  combinations  in  the  colonies  against 
jthe  use  of  British  manufactures,,  he  thought,  would  soon 

come   to  an  end. 

IVwnall  moved  to  include  tea  in  the  repeal,  support- 
ing this  amendment  rather  on  grounds  of  expediency 
and  commercial  policy  than  as  a  matter  of  colonial  right. 
Ho  was  sqoondod  by  Conway  and  Barre.  Grenvillo  de- 
clared that  when  ho  laid  tho  stamp  ta-x,  ho  had  tho  best 
information  that  it  would  bo  submitted  to.  In  laying 
that  lax  he  had  acted  systematically',  to  make  every 
portion  of  the  king's  dominions  bear  a  part  of  tho  public 
burdens.  When  (hat  net  raised  troubles  in  America,  the 
ministers  who  succeeded  him  acted  systematically  too. 
Theirs*,  perhaps,  was  the  next  best  system  to  his  own. 
They  took  the '  Americans  by  tho  hand,  and  restored 
things  to  the  state  they  were  in  before  tho  passing  of  the 
Stamp  Act.  In  this  statement,  however,  Grenville  over- 


. 

558  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  looked  the  Sugar  Act,  which  the  'Buckingham  ministry 

\  had  left  in  full  force  ;  but  that  he  probably  regarded  as 

1770.  a  mere  modification  of  the  old  Molasses  Act,  though  es- 
sentially different  from  it  in  principle,  involving  the  claim 
of  parliamentary  taxation  hardly  less  than  the  Stamp 
Act  itself.  "  Since  that  time,"  said  Grenville,  "  no 
minister  had  acted  with  common  sense.  The  next  min- 
istry, laid  a  tax  diametrically  repugnant  to  commercial 
principles,  bringing  in  no  money,  and  throwing  North 
America  into  ten  times  greater  flame  than  before."  He 
was  in  favor  of  easing  the  Americans  ;  but  the  ministers 
had  no  plan.  The  partial  repeal  which  they  proposed 
would  do  no  good;  and  the  proposed  amendment  was 
so  very  little  better,  'that  he  did  not -think  it  worth  while 
to  force  it  upon  a  reluctant  ministry.  He,  therefore, 
should  not  vote  upon"  the  question.  The  amendment 
was  defeated,  two  hundred  and  four  to  one  hundred  and 
forty-two;  and,  on^  subsequent  day,  Lord  North's  bill 
April,  of  repeal  became  law.  The  obnoxious  Quartering  Act, 
limited  by  its  terms  to  three  years,  was  suffered  silently 
tq  expire.  -  But  the  Sugar  Act,  and  especially  the  tax 
on  tea,  as  they  involved  the  wljole  principle  of  parliament- 
ary taxation,  were  quite  sufficient  to  keep  up  the  discon- 
tent, of  the  colonies. 

Lord  North's  act,  in  one  respect,  accomplished  its  ob- 
ject, in  ^furnishing  an  excnise  for  abandoning  the  non- 
importation and  non-consumption  agreements,  which  soon 
became  limited  to  the  article  of  tea.  Those  agreements, 
though  only  partially  observed,  and  that  not  without 
great  jealousies  and  heart-burnings,  were  not,  however, 
without  permanent  consequences.  The  discontinuance 
of  that  pomp  of  mourning  and  funeral  expenses,  for  ex- 
cess in  which  the  colonjsts  had  been  hitherta  distin- 
guished, takes  its  date  from  this:  occasion.  The  infant 


TRADE  OF  THE  COLONIES.  5*59 

manufactures  of  America  received,  too,  from  these  agree-  CHAPTER 

'  XXIX 

ments,  ,a  strong1  impulse.     Home-made  became  all  the 

fashion.      Th^  graduating  class  at  Cambridge  took  their  1770. 
degrees  this  year  in  homespun  suits. 

The  trade  between  Great  Britain  and  the  colonies  is 
stated  for  the  year  1770  as  follows,  and  the  average  of 
the  last  ten  years,  allowing  for  a  moderate  increase,  had 
not  been  materially  different : 

Exports  to  Great  Britain.   . 

New  England £148,011  $657;168T 

NewYork 69,882  •  310,276 

Pennsylvania :.    .  28,^09  124,803 

Virginia  and  Maryland 435,094  1,931,801 

Carolinas 278,097  1,234,750 

Georgia ,....?....       55,532  234,352 

£1,014,725       $4,493,15,0      , 

Imports  from  Great  Britain. 

New  England ,£394,451  $1,751,362 

NewYork < 475,991  2,113,400 

Pennsylvania 134,881  599',093 

Virginia  and  Maryland 717,782  3,186,952 

,  Carolinas 146,272  649,446 

Georgia 56,193  249,496 

£1,925,570        $8,549,749  ' 

The  surplus  of  imports  Was  paid  for  by  the  profits  of 
the  trade  with  Spain,  Portugal,  and  the  West  Indies/ 

A  brutal  assault  by  a  commissioner  of  the  customs, 
whom  he  met  in -a-  tavern,,  in  which  James  Otis- had  been 
almost  killed,  and  from  the  effects  of  which  he  never 
fully  recovered,  deprived  Massachusetts  of  his  services; 
but  his  ,place  in  the  House  of  Representatives  was  ably 
supplied  by  John  Adams,  a  young  lawyer  who  had  ma'de 
hinlself  known  about  the  time  of  the  Stamp  Act  by  an 
e^say  "  On  Canon  and  Feudal  Law,"  in -which  he  had 
taken  strong  ground  in  favor  of  popular  rights.  .He  had 
since  become  a  leading  member  of  that  select  "  caucus," 


,560  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  oj  secret  committee  of  popular  leaders  in  Boston,  who 

XXIX  > 

.^          regulated   at   their  private   meetings  the  .policy  to  be 
1770.  adopted  by  the  General  Court.     Joseph  Warren,  a  young 
physician,  Josiah  Quincy,  the  colleague  of  Adams  in  the 
defense  of  the  British  soldiers,  alid  Dr.  Benjamin  Church, 
were  leading  members  of  this  same  "  caucus." 
May  31.       Hutchinson  having  seen  fit  to  assemble  the  General 
.Court  at  Canibridge,  the  representatives  insisted  that, 
by  the  terms  of  the  charter,  the  court  could  only  be  held 
in  Boston,  thus  reviving  a  claim  first  put  forward  in 
the  time  of  Governor  Burnet.      Two  sessions  were  con- 
sumed in  this  dispute.     When  at  length  the  cdurt,  un- 
Oct.,    der  protest,  consented  to  proceed  to  business,  after  a  day 
of  solemn  humiliation  and  prayer,  they  made  a  bitter 
complaint    against  the>  lieutenant  governor   for'  having 
withdrawn  the  company  in  provincial  pay,  which  hitherto 
had  held  the  castle  in  Boston  harbor,  and  given  up  the 
custody  of  that  fortress  to  the  regulars.     They  complain- 
ed, also,  of  the  unusual  number  of  ships  of  war  assembled 
in  the  harbor  ;   all  which  they  charged  to  have  been  occa- 
sipned  by  the  false  representations  given  by  the  governor 
of  the  state  of  the  province-.      Dennis  de  Berdt,  the  late 
*  agent,  being  dead}  Dr.  Franklin  was  chosen  in  his  place. 
He  was  agent  already  for  New  Jersey  and  Georgia,  as 

17 71.  well  as  Pennsylvania.      At  an  adjourned  session,  Hutch- 
Apnl>    inson  gave  notice  of  his  appointment  as'gov'ernor.    When 

May  25.  the  new  court  met,  a  new  dispute  arose  on  the  question 
of  taxing  the  salaries  of  crown  officers,  in  consequence 
of  which  the  court  was  prorogued  without  having  made 
any  provision  for  ;the  public  expenses. 

1772.  The  next  year  Hutchinson  informed  the  House  that, 
as  his  salary\  thenceforth  would  be  paid  by  the  crown,  no 
appropriation  would  be  required  for  that  purpose.      In- 
stead of  regarding  this  payment  as  a  favor,  the  House 


BOSTON  ADDRESS  AND  REPORT.  5  g  J 

denounced  it  as  a  violation  of  -the  charter  —  no  better,  in  CHAPTER 

XXIX 

fact,  than  a  standing  bribe  from  the  crown  to  the  gov-     .  _ 


ernor.      The  salary  allowed  by  the  crown  was  $6666. 

After  the  court  had  adjourned,  the  people  of  Boston 
took  up  the  matter.  A  town  meeting  was  held,  at  which  Oct.  28. 
a  large  committee  of  the  most  active  'popular  leaders  was 
appointed  to  state  the  rights  of  the  colonists,  especially 
those  of  Massachusetts,  "  as  men,  as  Christians,  and 
as  British  subjects;"  to  communicate  and  publish  the 
same  to  the  several  towns  of  the  province  and  to  the 
world,  with  the  infringements  and  violations  from  time 
to  time  made,  and  to  request  of  each  town  a  communi- 
cation of  their  sentiments  on  the  subject. 

The  Gaspe,  an  armed  schooner  in  the  revenue  service, 
had  given  great  and  often  unnecessary  annoyance  to  the 
shipping  employed  in  Narraganset  Bay.  A  plan,  in  con- 
sequence, had  been  formed  for  her  destruction.  Enticed 
into  shoal  water  by  a  schooner,  to  which  she  had  been 
induced  to  give  chase,  she  grounded,  and  was  boarded  June  10 
and  burned  by  a  party  from  Providence.  In  consequence 
of  this  daring  outrage,  an  act  of  Parliament  had  passed 
for  sending  to  England  for  trial  all  persons  concerned  in 
the  colonies  in  burning  or  destroying  his  majesty^s  ships, 
dock-yardsj  or  military  stores.  A  reward  of  ^£600  ster- 
ling, and  a  free  pardon  to  any  accomplice,  was  offered  for 
the  discovery  of  the  destroyers  of  the  Gaspe  ;  and  a 
board  was  constituted  to  examine  into  the  matter,  com- 
posed of  the  governor  of  Rhode  Island,  the  chief  justices 
of  Massachusetts,  New  York,  and  New  Jersey,  and  the 
judge  of  the  Admiralty  for  the  Northern  District.  But, 
though  the  perpetrators  were  well  known,  no  legal  evi- 
dence could  be  obtained  against  them. 

The  Boston  committee  included  in  their  list  of  griev- 
ances, besides  the  recent  attempts  to  tax  the  colonies,  so 


562 


HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED    STATES. 


1773. 

Jan. 


CHAPTER  much  of  the  above  act  as  provided  for  sending  persons  to 
"England  for  trial ;  also  the  restraints  imposed  upon  co- 
1772.  lonial  manufactures,  more  especially  of  wool  and  iron. 
They  complainqd  of  a  plan,  said  to  have  been  in  agita- 
tion for  some"  years  past,  to  establish  bishops  in  Ameri- 
ca, with  exclusive  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction.  This  re- 
port, touching  thus  upon  new  matters^  and  containing 
the  boldest  and  most  comprehensive  exposition  as  yet 
set  forth  of  colonial  rights  and .  grievances,  was  prefaced 
by  an  address,  and  sent  to  the  various  towns,  many  of 
which,  including  the  principal  towns  in  the  province,  ex- 
pressed their  approbation  of  it,  and  appointed  committees 
of  correspondence  to  maintain  the  principles  thus  avow- 
ed. Franklin  .caused  this  address  and  report  to  be  re- 
published  in  London,  with  a  preface  of  his  own. 

In  his  opening  speech  at  the  next  session  Hutchinson 
complained  of  the  Boston  address  and  report  as  subver- 
sive of  the  .Constitution,  amounting  substantially  to  a 
denial  of  the  supreme  authority  of  Parliament.  Both 
the  council  and  the  House,  in  separate  answers,  main- 
tained the  doctrines  of  the  address  and  report ;  and  these 
answers,  with  that  document  appended,  w;ere  transmitted 
to  the  Virginia  Assembly,  then  in  session. 

Stimulated  by  the  zeal  of  Henry,  Jefferson,  and  Rich- 
ard Henry  Lee,  the  burgesses,  on  the  reception  of  these 
March,  documents,  appointed  a  committee  to  obtain  the  most 
clear  and  authentic  intelligence  of  all  such  acts  of  the 
Parliament  or  ministry  as  might  affect  the  rights  of  the 
colonies,  and  the  same  committee  was  authorized  to  open 
a  correspondence  and  communication  with  the  other  col- 
onies. Lord  Dunmore,  recently  removed  from  New  York 
to  Virginia  as  Boutetourt's  successor,  cut  short  these 
proceedings  by  dissolving  the  Assembly.  The  commit- 
tee appointed  by  it  met,  however,  the  next  day,  and  dis- 


Feb. 


ANTI-SLAVERY  MOVEMENT  IN  M  ASS  A  CHUSETTS.  5  £  3 

patched  a  circular  letter  to  the  speakers  of  the  popular  CHAPTER 
branch  of  the  several  colonial  Assemblies.     The  General  .^___ 
Court  of  Massachusetts  responded  by  appointing  a  com-  1773. 
mittee  of  fifteen,  and  instructing  them  to  urge  the  other  Ma^  26- 
colonies  to  make  similar  appointments.      New  Hamp- 
shire,   Rhode    Island,    Connecticut,    Pennsylvania,    and 
Maryland  presently  did  so — first  steps  toward  the  polit- 
ical union  of  the  colonies. 

Some  original  letters,  written  by  Hutchinson  to  a 
member  of  Parliament,  since  deceased,  giving  an  unfa- 
vorable character  of  the  principal  popular  leaders  in  the 
colony,  and  indicating  the  necessity  for  an  abridgment 
of  "  what  are  called  English  liberties,"  had  come  into 
the  hands  of  Franklin,  by  what  precise  means  is  still 
unknown,  and  he  had  transmitted  them  to  Boston,  with 
an  injunction  that  they  should  neither  be  printed  nor 
copied.  After  being  privately  handed  about  for  some 
months,  they  were  laid  before  the  House  in  secret  ses- 
sion, and  being  finally  made  public,  occasioned  a  new 
and  still  more  violent  outcry  against  the  governor,  and 
an  address  from  the  General  Court  to  the  king  for  his  June  9. 
speedy  removal. 

While  these  ardent  discussions  on  the  subject  of  colo- 
nial and  natural  rights  were  going  on  in  Massachusetts, 
some  reflecting  persons  had  been  struck  with  u  the  in- 
consistency of  contending  for  our  own  liberty,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  depriving  other  people  of  theirs."  A  contro- 
versy arose  as  to  the  justice  and  legality  of  negro  slavery, 
in  which  Nathaniel  Appleton  and  James  Swan,  merchants 
of  Boston,  distinguished  themselves  as  writers  on  the 
side  of  liberty.  Those  on  the- other  side  generally  con- 
cealed their  names,  but  their  arguments  did  not  go  long 
without  answer.  This  controversy  began  about  the  year 
1766,  and  was  renewed  at  several  times  till  1773,  when 


564  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  it  was  very  warmly  agitated,  and  even  became  a  subject 

l_of  forensic  disputation  at  the  college.      In  1767  and 

1773.  afterward,  attempts  were  made  in  the  General  Court  to 
restrict  the  further  importation  of  negroes ;  but  neither 
Bernard  nor  Hutchinson  favored  that  course  of  policy. 
It  was  even  questioned  whether,  under  the  laws  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, any  person  could  be  held  as  a  slave.  This 
point  was  carried  before  the  Superior  Court  in  a  suit  by 
a  negro  to  recover  wages  from  his  alleged  master.  "  The 
negroes,"  says  Belknap,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  our 
knowledge  of  this  matter,  "  collected  money  among  them- 
selves to  carry  on  the  suit,  and  it  terminated  favorably. 
Other  suits  were  instituted  between  that  time  and  the 
Revolution,  and  the  juries  invariably  gave  their  verdict 
in  favor  of  freedom."  "  The  pleas  on  the  part  of  the 
masters  were,  that  the  negroes  were  purchased  in  open 
market,  and  bills  of  sale  were  produced  in  evidence  ; 
that  the  laws  of  the  province  recognized  slavery  as  ex- 
isting in  it,  by  declaring  that  no  person  should  manumit 
his  slave  without  giving  bond  for  his  maintenance,  &c. 
On  the  part  of  the  blacks,  it  was  pleaded  that  the  royal 
charter  expressly  declared  all  persons  born  or  residing  in 
the  province  to  be  as  free  as  the  king's  subjects  in  Great 
Britain ;  that,  by  the  law  of  England,  no  subject  could 
be  deprived  of  his  liberty  but  by  the  judgment  of  his 
peers ;  that  the  laws  of  the  province  respecting  an  evil, 
and  attempting  to  mitigate  or  .regulate  it,  did  not  au- 
thorize it ;  and  on  some  occasions  the  plea  was,  that 
though  the  slavery  of  the  parents  were  admitted,  yet  no 
disability  of  that  kind  could  descend  to  the  children." 
This  latter  view  was  amply-  sustained  by  a  passage  in 
Otis' s  "  Rights  of  ,the  Colonies,"  in  which  it  was  laid 
down  as  a  fundamental  proposition,  "that  the  colonists, 
black  and  white,  born  here,  are  free-born  British  sub- 


CASE  OF   SOMERSETT.  555 

iects,  and  entitled  to  all  the  essential  rights  of  such."  CHAPTER 

XXIX 

These  trials,  though  the  negroes  were  too  ignorant  and 

helpless  to  take  full  advantage  of  them,  were  the  first  1773. 
step  toward  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  Massachusetts. 

The  same  view  taken  by  the  Massachusetts  juries  was 
simultaneously  sanctioned  in  England  by  a  solemn  de- 
cision of  the  Court  of  King's  Bench.  James  Sbmersett, 
an  African  by  birth,  carried  to  Virginia  as  a  slave,  and 
purchased  there  by  James  Stewart,  had  been  brought 
from  Virginia  to  England,  where  he  refused  to  serve  any 
longer,  in  consequence  of  which  Stewart  seized  him,  and 
put  him  on  board  a  vessel  to  be  shipped  to  Jamaica. 
Being  brought  before  Lord  Mansfield  on  a  writ  of  habeas  1771. 
corpus,  his  case  was  referred  to  the  full  court.  Three  Dec> 
learned  counsel,  retained  and  instructed  by  the  indefati- 
gable Granville  Sharpe,  argued  for  the  negro.  Two  of 
the  most  eminent  lawyers  of  the  day  appeared  for  the 
owner. 

After  the  argument,  Lord  Mansfield  said,  "  In  five  or  1772. 
six  cases  of  this  nature,  I  have  known  it  accommodated 
by  agreement  between  the  parties.  On  its  first  coming 
before  me  I  strongly  recommended  it  here.  But  if  the 
parties  will  have  it  decided,  we  must  give  our  opinion. 
Compassion  will  not  on  the  one  hand,  nor  inconvenience 
on  the  other,  be  to  decide,  but  the  law."  "  The  now 
question  is,  whether  any  dominion,  authority,  or  coercion 
can  be  exercised  in  this  country  on  a  slave  according  to 
the  American  laws.  The  difficulty  of  adopting  the  rela- 
tion, without  adopting  it  in  all  its  consequences,  is  indeed 
extreme ;  yet  many  of  those  consequences  are  absolutely 
contrary  to  the  municipal  law  of  England.  On  the  other 
hand,  should  we  think  the  coercive  power  can  not  be  ex- 
ercised, it  is  now  about  fifty  years  since  the  opinion"  to 
the  contrary  "  by  two  of  the  greatest  men  of  their  own 


566  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 


CHAPTER  or  any  time."     This  referred  to  the  opinion  of  Yorke  and 

XXIX 

Talbot,  subsequently  recognized  as  law  by  Lord  Hard- 

1772.  wicke,  sitting  as  chancellor,  an  account  of  which  may  be 
found  in  a  previous  chapter.  «  The  setting  fourteen  or 
fifteen  thousand  men"^the  estimated  number  of  negro 
slaves  in  England — "-at  once  loose  by  a  solemri  opinion, 
is  very  disagreeable  in  the  effects  it  threatens."  But, 
"  if  the  parties  will  have  judgment,  fiat  justiti a  mat  cat- 
lum,  let  justice  be  done,  whatever  be  the  consequence. 
Fifty  pounds  may  not  be  a  high  price ;  then  a  loss  fol- 
lows1 to  the  proprietors  of  above  £700,000  sterling. 
How  would  the  law  stand  in  respect  to  their  settlement 
— their  wages?  How  many  actions  for  any  slight  co- 
ercion by  the  master  ?  We  can  not  in  any  of  these 
points  direct  the  law,  the  law  must  direct  us." 
June  22.  Afterward,  in  giving  judgment,  Lord  Mansfield  said, 
"  The  only  question  before  us  is  whether  the  cause  on 
the  return  is  sufficient.  If  it  is,  the  negro  must  b3 
remanded  ;  if  it  is  not,  he  must  be  discharged.  The  re- 
turn states  that  the  slave  departed,  and  refused  to  serve, 
whereupon  he  was  kept  to  be  sold  abroad.  So  high  an 
act  of  dominion  must  be  recognized  by  the  law  of  the 
country  where  it  is  used.  The  power  of  a  master  over 
his  slave  has  been  exceedingly  different  in  different  coun- 
tries. The  state  of  slavery  is  of  such  a  nature  that  it 
is  incapable  of  being  introduced  on  any  reasons  moral  or 
political,  but  only  by  positive  law,  which  preserves  its 
force  long  after  the  reasons,  occasions,  and  time  itself 
from  whence  it  was  created  is  erased  from  memory.  It 
is  so  odious  that  nothing  can  be  suffered  to  support  it 
but  positive  law.  Whatever  inconveniences,  therefore, 
may  follow  from  the  decision,  I  can  not  say  this  case  is 
allowed  or  approved  by  the  law  of  England,  and  there- 
fore the  black  must  be  discharged."  Though  this  famous 


SOUTH  CAROLINA  REGULATORS.       5(37 

decision  is  limited  in  its  terms  to  England,  its  bearing  CHAPTER 

on  the  colonies  is.  sufficiently  obvious.      All  the  colonial [ 

Assemblies  were  specially  restricted,  either  by  charter,  1772. 
or  the  royal  commissions  under  which  they  met  and 
legislated,  to  the  enactment  of  laws  "  not  repugnant" 
to  those  of  England.  How,  then,  were  those  Assem- 
blies competent  to  legalize  a  condition,  many  of  the  con- 
sequences of  which  are  pronounced  by  Lord  Mansfield 
"  absolutely  contrary"  to  English  law  ? 

Since  the  termination  of  the  Cherokee  war  the  upper 
districts  of  South  Carolina  had  filled  very  rapidly  with 
inhabitants,  partly  emigrants  from  the  more  northern 
colonies,  and  partly  foreigners,  Irish,  Scotch,  and  Ger- 
mans, whose  immigration  was  promoted,  as  has-been 
mentioned  already,  by  a  provincial  bounty.  Among 
these  settlers  were  many  persons  of  loose  principles,  and 
the  more  thriving  inhabitants  complained  loudly  of  dep- 
redations committed  on  their  property,  which  it  was  by 
no  means  easy  to  punish  in  a  legal  way,  for  as  yet 
there  were  no  courts  held  out  of  Charleston.  Under 
the  name  of  "  Regulators,"  many  of  the  most  respectable 
inhabitants  associated  themselves  for  the  summary  pun- 
ishment of  offenders,  especially  horse  thieves.  A  portion 
of  the  inhabitants,  especially  those  most  exposed  to  the 
visitations  of  the  Regulators,  protested  against  this  as- 
sumption of  authority.  They  claimed  the  right  of  trial 
by  jury,  and  on  this  subject  the  people  became  divided 
into  two  hostile*  parties.  Lord  Montague,  having  as- 
sumed office  as  governor,  commissioned  one  Scovil  to  in-  1766. 
vestigate  the  matter,  and  he  arrested  some  of  the  Regula-  1767. 
tors  and  sent  them  to  Charleston.  The  quarrel  reached 
such  a  height  that  the  two  parties  were  near  appealing 
to  arms.  Pacified  at  length  by  the  establishment  of 
district  courts,  which  had  been  delayed'by  disputes  as  to 


568  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  their  constitution  between  the  Assembly  and  the  gov- 

XXIX.     / 

ernor,  the  South  Carolina  Regulators  were  content  thfence- 

1773.  forward  with  legal  prosecutions.  But  the  ill  feeling  ex- 
cited between  them  and  the  Scovilites,  as  they  called 
their  opponents,  continued  to  rankle.  On  the  question 
whether  the  rights  of  the  colony  had  been  infringed  by 
Parliament,  the  Scovilites  inclined  to  the  government 
side.  N  They  began  to  be  stigmatized  as  Tories,  while 
the  late  Regulators  assumed  the  name  of  Whigs. 

A  domestic  controversy  in  Maryland  showed  the  in- 
habitants of  that  province  awake  to  the  new  question  of 
colonial  rights.  Loud  complaints  having  been  made  of 
extortionate  fees,  the  lower  House  of  Assembly  passed  a 
bill  for  their  regulation ;  but  this  bill  was  defeated  in 
the  council,  where  several  officials  had  seats.  Governor 

1769.  Sharpe  had  lately  been  succeeded  by  Robert  Eden,  a 
brother-in-law  of  the  proprietary,  and  the  regulation  of 
fees  by  the  Assembly  having  failed,  he  undertook  to  reg- 

1770.  ulate  them  by  his  authority  as  governor.      This  "  setting 
v>     the  fees  by  proclamation"  made  a  great  stir  in  the  prov- 
ince.    Fees,  it  was  said,  were  in  their  nature  taxes,  and 
this  proclamation  was  denounced  as  an  attempt  to  impose 
taxes  without  the  authority  of  the  Assembly.      It  was 
defended  in  the  newspapers  by  Dulany,  secretary  of  the 
province,  who  had  gained  considerable  reputation  by  his 
essays  at  the  time  of  the  Stamp  Act  against  the  right 
of  the  mother  country  to  tax  the  colonies.      To  this  de- 
fense a  reply  was  made  by   Charles  Carroll,  a  young 
Catholic,  the  wealthiest  proprietor  in  the  province.     Car- 
roll, after  an  education  in  France,  had  read  law  in  Lon- 
don.     His  reply,  in  the  estimation  of  the  colonists,  was 
triumphant ;  but  the  governor  would  not  yield,  and  the 
controversy  was  kept  up  for  several  years. 

Frederic  Calvert,   fifth  Lord  Baltimore,  a  man   of 


NORTH  CAROLINA  REGULATORS.       559 

some  accomplishments  but  of  dissolute  habits,  dying  with-  CHAPTER 

out  lawful  issue,  the  peerage  expired  with  him.      The 

province  of  Maryland  he  bequeathed  to  a  natural  son,  1771. 
Henry  Harford,  then  a  boy  at  school.  Eden  continued 
to  administer  the  province  in  this  boy's  behalf ;  but  the 
will  of  Lord  Baltimore  could  not  transfer  the  loyalty  and 
favor  of  the  colonists,  much"  diminished,  indeed,  of  late 
years  by  disputes  as  to  the  extent  of  proprietary  rights, 
and  destined  to  a  speedy  and  total  extinction. 

Complaints  of  official  extortion  were  not  confined  to 
Maryland.  Outcries  in  New  Jersey  against  lawyers 
and  sheriffs  led,  in  some  cases,  to  acts  of  violence.  But 
the  matter  was  carried  to  the  greatest  extent  in  North 
Carolina,  in  which  province  Dobbs  had  been  succeeded  1766. 
as  governor  by  William  Tryon.  Complaints  were  most 
rife  in  the  middle  counties,  a  very  barren  portion  of  the 
province,  with  a  population  generally  poor  and  ignorant. 
These  people  complained,  and  not  without  reason — for 
the  poor  and  ignorant  are  ever  most  exposed  to  oppres- 
sion— not  only  that  excessive  fees  were  extorted,  but 
that  the  sheriffs  collected  taxes  of  which  they  rendered 
no  account.  They  seem  also  to  have  held  the  courts 
and  lawyers — indeed,  the  whole  system  for  the  collection 
of  debts,  in  great  detestation.  Presently,  under  the 
name  of  "  Regulators,"  borrowed  from  South  Carolina, 
they  formed  associations  which  not  only  refused  the  pay- 
ment of  taxes,  but  assaulted  the  persons  and  property  of 
lawyers,  judges,  sheriffs,  and  other  obnoxious  individu- 
als, and  even  proceeded  so  far  as  to  break  up  the  sessions 
of  the  courts.  The  common  name  of  Regulators  desig- 
nated, in  the  two  Carolinas,  combinations  composed  of 
different  materials,  and  having  different  objects  in  view. 
The  Assembly  of  the  province  took  decided  ground  against 
them,  and  even  expelled  one  o£  their  leaders,  who  had  been 


570  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  elected  a  member.      After  negotiations  and  delays,  and 
_  broken  promises  to  keep  the  peace,  Governor  Tryon,  at 

1771.  the  head  of  a  body  of  volunteers,  marched  into  the  dis- 
affected counties.  The  Regulators  assembled  in  arms, 

May  16.  and  an  action  was  fought  at  Alamance,  on  the  Haw, 
near  the  head  waters  of  Cape  Fear  River,  in  which  some 
two  hundred  were  left  dead  upon  the  field.  Out  of  a 
large  number  taken  prisoners,  six  were  executed  for  high 
treason.  Though  the  Regulators  submitted,  they  con- 
tinued to  entertain  a  deadly /hatred  against  the  militia 
of  the  lower  counties,  which  had  taken  part  against 

1773.  them.  Tryon  was  presently  removed  from  North  Caro- 
lina to  New  York.  His  successor,  Joseph  Martin,  anx- 
ious to  strengthen  himself  against  the  growing  discon- 
tents of  the  province,  promised  to  redress  the  grievances, 
and  sedulously  cultivated  the  good  will  of  the  Regula- 
tors, and  with  such  success  that  they  became,  in  the 
end,  stanch  supporters  of  the  royal  authority. 

Shortly  after  Martin's  accession,  the  act  of  Assembly 
under  which  the'  provincial  courts  were  organized  ex- 
pired by  its  own  limitation.  The  House  and  council 
differed  as  to  complying  with  directions  from  England 
to  insert  into  the  new  act  certain  provisions  on  the  sub- 
ject of  foreign  attachment,  arid  this  difference  was  car- 
ried so  far  that  North  Carolina  remained  for  a  twelve- 
month without  any  courts  at  all. 

1771.  After  holding  office  for  eight  years,  John  Penn  gave 
up  the  deputy  governorship  of  Pennsylvania  to  his  brother 
Richard,  who  acquired  a  high  degree  of  popularity  among 
the  merchants  -of  Philadelphia.  But,  after  the  death  of 
their  father,  by  which  event  John  Penn  became  pro- 
prietary to  the  extent  of  one  fourth  of  the  province,  he 
again  resumed  office  as  governor.  The  Assembly  of 
Delaware  passed  an  "act  prohibiting  the  further  intro- 


TERRITORIAL   CONTROVERSIES.  g  7  1 

duction  of  slaves,  but  it  received  the  veto  of  Governor  CHAPTER 

XXIX. 

Penn.     Old  disputes  in  Pennsylvania  had  been  super- ^_ 

seded,  in  a  great  measure,  by  the  new  questions  as  to  1773. 
parliamentary  power  ;  but  the  proprietaries  had  mean- 
while become  involved  in  an  embarrassing  territorial 
controversy  with  Connecticut.  The  Susquehanna  Com- 
pany, of  which  the  origin  and  objects  have  been  ex- 
plained in  a  preceding  chapter,  had  resumed,  since  the 
peace,  their  plans  of  settlement,  and  had  sent  a  colony 
to  occupy  the  Valley  of  Wyoming,  on  the  Upper  Sus- 
quehanna. The  proprietaries  of  Pennsylvania  having  1769. 
made  grants  of  the  same  land,  the  settlers  under  those 
grants  came  into  violent  collision  with  the  Connecticut 
immigrants.  The.  Pennsylvania  proprietors  complained 
to  Jonathan  Trumbull,  just  chosen  governor  of  Connecti- 
cut, which  office  he  held  for  the  next  fifteen  years  ;  but 
Trumbull  disclaimed  any  responsibility  for  the  acts  of 
the  emigrants.  A  struggle  ensued,  not  without  blood- 
shed, in  which  fortune  several  times*  changed  sides.  The 
claimants  under  the  Susquehanna  Company  kept  pos- 
session, however,  and  lived  for  two  years  under  a  gov- 
ernment of  their  own,  when  the  influence  of  the  Sus- 
quehanna Company  prevailed  with  Connecticut  to  as- 
sume jurisdiction,  Wyoming  being  claimed  as  within  1773. 
her  territory,  which  extended,  by  her  charter,  west  to 
the  Pacific.  The  Wyoming  settlement,  incorporated  by 
the  Connecticut  Assembly  as  the  town  of  Westmore- 
land, was  annexed  to  Litchfield  county.  The  Penn- 
sylvania Assembly  constituted  the  same  region  as  the 
county  of  Northumberland.  The  dispute  was  carried  be- 
fore the  king  in  council,  but  the  decision  was  delayed ; 
and  Governor  Penn  presently  made  new  but  unavailing 
efforts  to  expel  the  Connecticut  settlers  by  force. 

The  jurisdiction  of  Pennsylvania  was  also  disputed  on 


572  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 


CHAPTER  her  western  frontier.      Pittsburg  an'd  the  whole  district 

XXIX 

west  of  the  Laurel  Mountains  was  claimed  by  Virginia 


1773.  a£  within  her  limits.      One  Dr.  Conolly,  who  appeared 

1774.  there  with  a  commission  from  Lord  Dunmore,  was  ar- 
rested by  St  Clair,  clerk  of  Westmoreland  county  un- 
der the  Pennsylvania  authority ;  but  he  soon  regained  his 
liberty,  and  induced  the  greater  part  of  the  inhabitants 
to  side  with  him.    Conolly  was  a  native  of  Pennsylvania ; 
St.  Clair  was  a  Scotchman,  a  subaltern  officer  in  the 
British  army  during  the  late  war,  but  since  the  peace  a 
backwoodsman  of  Pennsylvania. 

The    long-pending   boundary   dispute    between  New 

1769.  York  and  New  Jersey  was   settled   at  last  by  a  joint 
Board    of   Commissioners.     Lord   Dunmore,    appointed 

1770.  governor  of  New  York,  but  promoted  within  six  months 

1771.  to  Virginia,  was  succeeded  by  Try  on,  of  North  Carolina. 
A  Board  of  Commissioners  presently  met  at  Hartford  for 
the  settlement  of  the  New  York  and  Massachusetts  bound- 

1773.  ary.  Governor  Tryon  and  Hutchinson  were  present ; 
and  the  line,  as  it  now  runs,  was  agreed  to.  But  the 
growing  troubles  with  the  mother  country,  by  delaying 
the  Toyal  confirmation,  prevented  this  settlement  from 
becoming  final.  By  the  caution  of  Hutchinson,  it  re- 
lated only  to  the  territory  east  of  the  Hudson,  not  touch- 
ing the  right  of  Massachusetts  to  the  tract  west  of  the 
Delaware,  claimed  as  within  her  charter.  The  settle- 
ments on  the  Mohawk  and  its  tributaries,  including  all 
the  population  west  of  Schenectady,  had  been  lately  erect- 
ed into  the  new  county  of  Tryon. 

Subsequently  to  the  order  in  council  confirming  the 
claim  of  New  York  to  the  territory  west  of  the  Con- 
necticut and  north  of  the  Massachusetts  line,  the  south- 
western townships  of  that  newly-settled  region  had  been 
annexed  to  the  county  of  Albany,  and  the  rest  of  the 


TERRITORIAL   CONTROVERSIES.  573 

territory  erected  into  three  new  counties.      The  inhabit-  CHAPTER 

XXIX. 

ants  would  have  submitted  quietly  enough  to  this  claim 

of  jurisdiction  had  the  validity  of  the  land  grants  made  1771. 
by  Wentworth  been  admitted.  But  the  New  York 
officials,  anxious  to  reap  their  crop  of  fees,  insisted  that 
new  grants  must  be  taken  out.  The  fees  demanded  by 
Wentworth  for  granting  a  township  had  amounted  to 
about  $100,  with  a  reservation  to  himself  of  five  hund- 
red acres  of  land.  The  fees  asked  by  the  governor  of 
New  York  exceeded  $2000  for  each  township.  Some 
of  the  settlers  submitted,  and  took  out  new  patents ; 
but  the  greater  part  refused.  Grants  were  then  issued 
of  their  lands  to  any  body  who  would  pay  the  fees ;  and 
a  body  of  land  speculators  was  thus  enlisted  in  the  quar- 
rel. Ejectment  suits  were  brought  in  the  courts  at  Al- 
bany. Judgments  for  the  New  York  claimants  were 
readily  obtained ;  but  it  was  not  easy  to  enforce  them. 
The  settlers  combined  for  mutual  protection^  and  resist- 
ed the  sheriffs.  They  sent  a  deputation  to  England 
with  complaints  ;  and  an  order  was  obtained  against  the 
issue  of  any  further  grants.  But  this  order  was  disre- 
garded ;  and  the  dispute,  day  by  day,  grew  more  and 
more  violent.  The  chief  leaders  in  this  resistance  were 
Ethan  Allen  and  Seth  Warner,  emigrants  from  Con- 
necticut. After  Try  on  assumed  the  government  of  New  1772. 
York,  he  attempted  an  arrangement  with  these  "  Green 
Mountain  Boys,"  as  they  began  to  be  called.  But  this 
accommodation  did  not  succeed.  The  dispute  soon  be- 
came more  violent  than  ever,  and  Tryon  sailed  for  En-  1773. 
gland  to  lay  the  matter  before  the  ministers. 

On  the  east  as  well  as  the  west  side  of  the  Connecti- 
cut, the    country  was   rapidly  filling   with   emigrants. 
New  Hampshire  was  now  first  divided  into  five  coun-  1772. 
ties,  Rockingham,  Hilhbowugh,  Cheshire)  Strafford. 


574  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  and  Graf  ton,  so  named  after  as  many  English  noblemen 
_whom  Wentworth  desired  to  compliment. 

1771.  Since   the   peace  with  the  Indians   on    the   western 
frontier,  various  projects   had  been    started  for    settle- 

1768.  ments  beyond  the  mountains.  In  a  treaty  held  at  Fort 
Nov.  5.  stanwix,  the  Six  Nations,  in  consideration  of  the  pay- 
ment of  £10,460,  had  ceded  to  the  crown  all  the  country 
south  of  the  Ohio  as  far  as  the  Cherokee  or  Tennessee 
River.  So  much  of  this  region  as  lay  south  of  the  Great 
Kenhawa  was  claimed,  however,  by  the  Cherokees  as  a 
part  of  their  hunting-grounds.  The  banks  of  the  Ken- 
hawa, or, New  River,  flowing  north  into  the  Ohio,  across 
the  foot  of  the  great  central  Allegany  Ridge,  already  be- 
gan to  be  occupied  by  individual  settlers.  Application 
was  soon  made  to  the  British  government  by  a  company 
— of  which  Franklin,  Sir  William  Johnson,  Walpole,  a 
wealthy  London  banker,  and  others,  were  members — for 
that  part  of  this  newly-ceded  territory  north  of  the  Ken- 
hawa, and  thence  to  the  Upper  Ohio.  -  They  offered  to 
refund  the  whole  amount  paid  to  the  Indians,  and  proposed 
to  establish  on  the  ceded  lands  a  new  and  separate  colony. 
This  grant,  though  opposed  by  Lord  Hillsborough,  was 

1772.  finally  agreed  to  by  the  ministry  ;  but  the  increasing 
troubles  between  the  colonies  and  the  mother  country  pre- 
ven,ted  its  final  completion.      Other  grants  solicited  and 
conceded  north  of  the  Ohio  were  defeated  by  the  same 
cause.     Such  was  the  origin  of  the  Walpole  or  Ohio  Com- 
pany, the  Vandalia  Company,  the  Indiana  Company — 
founded  on  a  cession  said  to  have  been  made  to  certain 
traders  at  the  treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix — and  other  land 
companies,  not  without  a  marked  influence  on  the  poli- 
tics of  a  future  period.     Even  the  distant  regions  on  the 

1773.  shores  of  Lake  Superior  attracted  the  attention  of  some 
adventurous  speculators,  by  whom  attempts  were  made  to 


TENNESSEE   AND  KENTUCKY.  575 

work  the  mines ;  but  the  expenses  attendant  upon  so  re-  CHAPTER* 

XXIX. 

mote  an  undertaking  caused  it  to  be  speedily  abandoned. 

The  first  settlement  within  the  limits  of  the  present  1768. 
State  of  TENNESSEE  was  made  by  emigrants  from  North 
Carolina,  under  the  leadership  of  James  Robinson,  who 
settled  on  the  Wataga,  one  of  the  head  streams  of  the 
Tennessee  River,  on  lands  of  the  Cherokees,  from  whom, 
however,  these  settlers  presently  obtained  an  eight  years'  1771. 
lease.  As  in  the  early  settlements  of  New  England, 
these  emigrants  organized  themselves  into  a  body  pol- 
itic. A  code  of  laws  was  assented  to,  and  signed  by 
each  individual  of  the  colony.  Others  who  joined  them 
soon  extended  the  settlement  down  the  Valley  of  the 
Houlston,  and,  crossing  the  intervening  ridges,  occupied 
the  banks  of  the  Nolichucky  and  Clinch  Rivers,  while 
others  yet  passed  into  Powell's  Valley,  the  southwestern 
corner  of  the  present  State  of  Virginia. 

John  Finley,  an  Indian  trader,  returning  to  North 
Carolina  from  the  still  more  distant  regions  beyond  the 
westernmost  mountains,  brought/ back  glowing  accounts  1769. 
of  that  fertile  country.  He  persuaded  Daniel  Boone,  a 
native  of  Maryland,  and  four  other  settlers  on  the  Yad- 
kin,  to  go  with  him  to  explore  it.  Having  reached  the 
head  waters  of  the  Kentucky,  these  adventurers  saw  from  May. 
the  hills  fertile  plains  stretching  toward  the  Ohio,  cov- 
ered with  magnificent  forests,  ranged  over  by  numerous 
herds  of  buffalo,  and  abounding  with  other  game.  They 
had  several  encounters  with  Indians.  Boone  was  taken 
prisoner.  One  of  his  companions  was  killed,  and  the 
others  hastily  returned  to  the  settlements.  There  were 
no  resident  Indian  inhabitants  in  Kentucky,  but  the 
Northern  and  the  Southern  Indians  made  it  their  com- 
mon hunting-ground,  and  often,  also,  their  field  of  battle. 
Having  escaped  from  his  captors,  Boone  was  presently 


576  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

'CHAPTER  joined  by  his  brother,  who  had  come  out  to  seek  him ; 

XXIX. 

but,  during  that  brother's  absence  eastward  to  obtain  a 

1770.  supply  of  ammunition,  this  famous  hunter  remained  for 
more  than  three  months  sole  tenant  of  the  wilderness. 
Having  explored  the  country  between  the  Upper  Ken- 
tucky and  the  Tennessee,  known  then  as  the  Cherokee 
River,  Boone  determined  to  settle  in  that  beautiful  re- 

1771.  gion,  and  returned  for  his  wife  and  children.      Two  years 
elapsed  before  he  could  sell  his  farm  on  the  Yadkin,  and 
make  the  necessary  arrangements  for  removal.    He  start- 

1773.  ed  at  last  with  his  own  and  five  other  families,  joined  as 
Sept-  they  passed  through  Powell's  Valley  by  forty  men  of 
that  infant  settlement.  A  band  of  hunters  from  that  and 
the  neighboring  valleys  had  been  lately  employed  in  fur- 
ther explorations  of  the  new  Western  Paradise.  Having 
crossed  the  last  ridge  of  the  mountains,  Boone's  party 
were  approaching  the  Cumberland  River,  when  their  ad- 
vance was  stopped  short  by  an  attack  from  the  Indians. 
Several  of  the  party  were  killed ;  their  cattle  were  dis- 
persed, and  they  deemed  it  prudent  to  retire  to  the  set- 
tlements on  the  Clinch,  where  they  were  detained  for 
a  year  and  a  half  by  the  war  which  presently  broke  out 
between  the  back  settlers  of  Virginia  and  the  Indians  on 
the  Ohio. 

While  these  explorations  were  made  toward  the  West, 
the  colony  of  Georgia  obtained  a  large  addition  to  its  ter- 
ritory in  an  extensive  cession  by  the  Creeks  and  Chero- 
kees  of  lands  to  be  sold  to  settlers,  and  the  proceeds  ap- 
plied to  the  payment  of  debts  due  to  the  Indian  traders. 
Governor  Wright's  adroit  management  of  this  affair  ob- 
tained for  him  the  honor  of  knighthood. 

In  Rhode  Island  a  very  bitter  party  contest  had  sprung 
up,  grounded  upon  merely  local  considerations,  between 
the  partisans  of  Hopkins  and  those  who  supported  Sam- 


COLLEGES  AND   RELIGIOUS   SECTS.  577 

uel  Ward  for  governor.      Ward  had  been  chosen  over  CHAPTER 

XXIX. 

Hopkins  in  1762,  and  again  in  1765  and  1766.     Hop- 

kins,  re-elected  in  1767,  proposed  to  calm  the  contest  1773. 
by  withdrawing  in  future  from  the  canvass.  The  next 
year  Josiah  Lindon  was  chosen  governor,  followed  in 
1769  by  Joseph  Wanton,  both  of  whom  had  been,  in  a 
good  measure,  unconnected  with  the  late  party  struggles. 
Wanton  held  the  office  for  the  next  six  years. 

The  college  of  Rhode  Island,  now  known  as  Brown 
University,  originally  established  at  Warren,  was  pres-  1764. 
ently  removed  to  Providence.  The  trustees  were  to  be  1770. 
of  four  different  sects  of  the  principal  denominations  in 
the  colony,  Baptists,  Quakers,  Episcopalians,  and  Con- 
gregationalists ;  but  the  Baptists  were  to  have  a  major- 
ity. The  new  discussions  about  national  and  political 
rights  excited  the  Baptists  in  Massachusetts  to  complain 
anew  of  the  legal  subordination  in  which  they  were  held, 
and  in  Isaac  Backus,  author  of  a  valuable  history  of 
New  England,  they  found  an  able  leader.  Out  of  Rhode 
Island,  the  New  England  Baptists  were  few  and  incon- 
siderable;  in  all  the  South,  where  they  are  now  so  nu- 
merous, they  numbered  hardly  a  hundred  congregations. 

A  second  college  in  New  Jersey,  then  called  Queen's, 
since  known  as  Rutgers'  College,  was  established  in  the  1770. 
interest  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church.  By  a  grant  of 
forty-four  thousand  acres  of  land,  Wheelock,  of  Leba- 
non, in  Connecticut,  was  induced  to  remove  his  Indian 
missionary  school  to  Hanover,  in  New  Hampshire,  and 
a  college  was  presently  added  to  it,  for  which  Wentworth  1771. 
granted  a  charter.  Sampson  Occum,  an  Indian  preach- 
er, a  pupil  of  Wheelock's,  was  sent  to  England  to  collect 
funds.  The  Earl  of  Dartmouth,  president  of  the  Board 
of  Trade,  and  Hillsborough's  successor  as  secretary  for 
the  colonies,  acted  as  one  of  ijie  trustees  of  these  collec- 
II.— O  o 


578  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  tions,  and  after  him  the  college  was  named.      This  made 

XXIX 

_J up  the  number  of  nine  colleges  of  which  the  colonies 

1771.  boasted  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  three  of  them 
controlled  by  Episcopalians,  three  by  Congregationalists, 
and  one  each  by  Presbyterians,  by  the  Dutch  Reformed 
Church,  and  by  the  Baptists. 

During  the  thirty  years  since  the  "  Great  Revival," 
public  attention  had  been  much  occupied  by  war  and 
politics.  The  minds  of  the  colonists  had  been  a  good 
deal  liberalized,  and  Latitudinarian  ideas  had  continued 
to  spread.  In  spite  of  these  obstacles,  the  religious  sys- 
tem of  the  revivalists,  upheld  by  zealous  and  eloquent 
adherents,  had  made  decided  progress.  Whitfield,  after 
repeated  visits  to  America,  died  there  in  1770.  The 
year  before,  his  co-apostle,  Wesley,  had  sent  two  disci- 
ples to  plant  the  new  Wesleyan  Church  in  America. 
But  the  loyal  principles  of  the  Wesleyans  did  not  suit 
the  temper  of  the  times,  and  that  sect,  now  so  numer- 
ous, made  hardly  any  progress  till  the  revolutionary 
struggle  was  over. 

Shortly  after  the  arrival  of  these  first  Wesleyan  mis- 
sionaries, there  came  from  England  Mother  Anne  Lee, 
foundress  of  the  Shakers,  a  singular  sect,  holding  to  ce- 
libacy and  community  of  goods,  several  of  whose  convent- 
like  establishments  are  still  in  existence.  This  female 
appstle  settled  near  Albany.  Her  early  converts,  as  has 
been  the  case  with  most  other  enthusiastic  sects  in  Amer- 
ica, were  principally  from  among  the  Baptists. 

John  Murray,  a  principal  founder  of  the  American 
sect  of  Universalists,  arrived  in  the  country  about  the 
same  time.  An  Englishman  by  birth,  he  had  been  a 
Methodist  preacher,  connected  at  first  with  Wesley,  and 
afterward  with  Whitfield,  but  finally  had  adopted  the 
doctrine  of  the  ultimate  salvation  of  all  men,  whence  the 


RELIGIOUS   SECTS.  579 

name  of  the  sect  to  which  he  belonged.      Since  Christ  CHAPTER 

XXIX 

died  for. sinners,  his  death,  Murray  thought,  could  not 
but  be  atonement  enough  for  the  whole  of  them.  El-  1770. 
nathan  Winchester,  a  native  of  Massachusetts,  an  un- 
educated but  strong-minded  man,  originally  a  Baptist, 
became  presently  another  itinerant  apostle  of  this  same 
doctrine,  which  several  years  after  received  a  strong  sup- 
port in  the  adhesion  of  the  aged  Chauncy,  one  of  the 
most  learned  and  able  of  the  Congregational  ministers. 
Another  distinguished  divine  of  those  times  was  Samuel 
Hopkins,  founder  of  the  sect  of  "  Hopkinsians,"  a  de- 
scendant of  Governor  Hopkins,  of  Connecticut,  a  convert 
in  the  great  revival  of  1741,  a  pupil  of  Edwards,  settled 
first  in  the  western  part  of  Massachusetts,  and  lately  at 
Newport.  Hopkins  sought  to  add  to  the  five  points  of 
Calvinism  the  rather  heterogeneous  ingredient  that  holi- 
ness consists  in  pure,  disinterested  benevolence,  and  that 
all  regard  for  self  is  necessarily  sinful.  The  disposition 
to  embrace  this  doctrine,  as  well  as  the  spread  of  the  Uni- 
versalist  opinions,  though  few  at  first  dared  to  avow 
them,  evinced,  at  length,  a  certain  softening  of  the  rug- 
ged New  England  heart.  But  the  armed  contest  with 
the  mother  country,  which  soon  engrossed  the  public 
mind,  the  strong  passions  which  revolution  and  war  of 
necessity  arouse,  operated  as  a  sudden  and  severe  check 
to  the  intellectual  development  of  the  people,  or,  rather, 
turned  that  development  almost  exclusively  into  military 
and  political  channels.  Of  statesmen  and  soldiers,  men 
great  in  action,  we  shall  presently  find  enough.  Think- 
ers are  the  product  of  quieter  times. 


END    OP    VOL'.    II. 


-       -          -  V  ..;* 

•.•.-''--'    •         v, 

-•    w      I 


/  -f." 


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